The big picture
Pressure to abandon God can come from within Israel, the nation he freed from slavery. Moses, its leader, has warned about foreign worship. Now he names threats closer to home. A prophet can show a sign. A close friend can urge a secret choice. A whole town can turn aside. None of these makes the act right. The laws demand death, but a charge against a town must first be proved.
In this chapter
- A True Sign Can Accompany False Worship Deuteronomy 13:1-5
A prophet or someone who reports a dream gives a sign, and it comes true.
- Close Relationships Do Not Excuse Betrayal Deuteronomy 13:6-11
The next threat comes through a loved one's secret words.
- A Town's Defection Must Be Investigated Deuteronomy 13:12-18
A report can claim that men in an Israelite town have led its people to other gods.
Central truth
Moses demands loyalty to God even against impressive signs, intimate pressure, or a whole town's turn toward other gods.
Scripture beside the summary
Deuteronomy · King James Version · 18Deuteronomy 13:1-5
A True Sign Can Accompany False Worship
A prophet or someone who reports a dream gives a sign, and it comes true. That does not settle whether the message is from God. If the speaker urges worship of other gods, Israel must refuse. Moses calls this a test of their love for the Lord. He is the God who freed them from Egypt, the land of slavery. They must obey and hold to him. The false prophet is to die for trying to break that bond. A true sign cannot make false worship right.
In everyday life
A watchmaker sees a visiting salesman correctly predict the fault inside a customer's watch. She is impressed until he asks her to falsify the warranty record. His skill does not make that request trustworthy. She keeps the record honest. Israel's case concerns worship and a death sentence, not a dishonest sales pitch.
Notice
Deuteronomy 13:2 The sign is allowed to come true in the example. The test is therefore the direction of the message, not only whether something remarkable happens.
Deuteronomy 13:1-5
King James Version1If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
2And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
3Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
5And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be 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.
Deuteronomy 13:6-11
Close Relationships Do Not Excuse Betrayal
The next threat comes through a loved one's secret words. A brother, child, spouse, or dear friend urges worship of other gods. The hearer must not agree, spare the person, or hide the act. Instead, that hearer must begin the stoning. The rest of the people join in and kill the offender. Moses says that hearing of this will make Israel fear and stop the same wrong. The law places loyalty to the God who freed them above even the closest ties of love.
In everyday life
A jewellery-shop assistant recognises her closest colleague's voice asking her to hide a false valuation. She refuses to erase the record, though their friendship makes the refusal painful. Loyalty to a friend does not require covering wrongdoing. The biblical law demands execution for religious betrayal, a severity this workplace refusal cannot represent.
Notice
Deuteronomy 13:6 The appeal moves through the closest ties, including a friend loved as one's own life. The command deliberately addresses pressure that is personal and painful.
Deuteronomy 13:6-11
King James Version6If 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 soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;
7Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
8Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:
9But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
10And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
11And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.
Deuteronomy 13:12-18
A Town's Defection Must Be Investigated
A report can claim that men in an Israelite town have led its people to other gods. Moses requires a full search into the facts. If the charge is true, the town faces destruction. Its people and cattle must be killed. Its goods must be burned with the town, which must never be rebuilt. Nobody may keep goods from it. This is a command for mass killing, not only the loss of a place of worship. Moses links obedience with God turning from anger to mercy.
In everyday life
A film auditor hears that an entire production has falsified its accounts. She checks invoices and interviews staff before treating the allegation as proved fact. The scale of the charge makes inquiry more necessary, not less. No audit authorises destroying a town and its people as this command requires.
Notice
Deuteronomy 13:14 Three forms of inquiry are urged before action. A report alone does not count as proof, especially when the required penalty affects an entire town.
Deuteronomy 13:12-18
King James Version12If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,
13Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;
14Then shalt 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;
15Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.
16And 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.
17And there shall cleave nought of the 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;
18When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD thy God.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Deuteronomy 13:1 begins with “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,”
Where the chapter turns
Deuteronomy 13:9 forms a natural hinge: “But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.”
The final note
Deuteronomy 13:18 leaves the reader with “When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes…”
A word trail through the chapter
The words LORD, gods, serve, city, dreamer, dreams help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- children of Belial
- Worthless or wicked people, as described by this older expression.
- spoil
- Goods taken from a defeated place or people.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
