Deuteronomy
Chapter 13
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Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
A dotted word is a harder one. Point at it, or tap it, for a short definition.
1If a prophet rises among you, or a dreamer of a dream, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,
2and the sign or the wonder comes about that he spoke to you, saying, Let us walk after other gods, whom you have not known, and let us serve them,
3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of a dream, for God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God is testing you, to know whether you love God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God with all your heart and with all your life.
4After God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God you shall walk, and him you shall fear, and his commands you shall keep, and his voice you shall listen to, and him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.
5That prophet, or that dreamer of a dream, shall be put to death, because he spoke rebellion against God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and Bought back. you from a slave house, to push you off the way that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God commanded you to walk. You shall burn out the evil from your midst.
6If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own life, entices you in secret, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, whom you have not known, you or your fathers,
7from the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth,
8you shall not consent to him, and you shall not listen to him, and your eye shall not pity him, and you shall not spare him, and you shall not cover for him.
9You shall kill him, kill him. Your hand shall be against him first to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward.
10You shall stone him with stones, and he shall die, because he sought to push you away from God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a slave house.
11All Israel shall hear and fear, and they shall not do again a wicked thing like this among you.
12If you hear in one of your cities that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God is giving you to live in, someone saying,
13Worthless men have gone out from your midst and have pushed the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, whom you have not known,
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- Translation
Bene beliya’al are sons of worthlessness, men with nothing sound in them. The phrase is not printed as a proper name.
14you shall inquire, search, and ask thoroughly, and look, if the thing is true and established, this Something God hates and will not accept. has been done among you,
15you shall strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, devote it and everything in it, and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.
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- Text
The written pronoun for the city is הוא, masculine. The Masoretic reading is היא, feminine. The written masculine is the form behind “that city.” The city is not dropped.
16You shall gather all its spoil into the middle of its square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, a whole offering to God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God. It shall be a mound forever. It shall not be built again.
17Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, so that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. may turn from his burning anger and give you compassion, and be compassionate to you and make you many, as he swore to your fathers,
18when you listen to the voice of God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God, to keep all his commands that I am commanding you today, to do what is right in the eyes of God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. your God.