13:1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of a
dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
(a) Who says that he has things revealed to him in dreams.
13:2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake
unto thee, saying, b Let us go after other gods, which
thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
(b) He shows that to which the false prophets tend.
13:3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or
that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God c proveth
you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all
your heart and with all your soul.
(c) God ordains all these things that his may be known.
13:5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be d
put to death; because he hath spoken to turn [you] away
from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land
of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to
thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded
thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the
midst of thee.
(d) Being convicted by testimonies, and condemned by the
judge.
13:6 If e thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or
thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend,
which [is] as thine own f soul, entice thee secretly,
saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not
known, thou, nor thy fathers;
(e) All natural affection must give place to God's honour.
(f) Whom you love as your life.
13:9 But thou shalt surely kill him; g thine hand shall be
first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand
of all the people.
(g) As the witness is charged.
13:14 Then shalt h thou enquire, and make search, and ask
diligently; and, behold, [if it be] truth, [and] the thing
certain, [that] such abomination is wrought among you;
(h) Which are appointed to see faults punished.
13:16 And i thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the
midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the
city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD
thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be
built again.
(i) Signifying that no idolatry is so detestable, nor more
grievously to be punished, than of those who once
professed God.
13:17 And there shall cleave nought of the k cursed thing to
thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of
his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon
thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy
fathers;
(k) Of the spoil of that idolatrous and cursed city, read
(De 7:26, Jos 7:11).
