Idolaters to Be Put to Death

1If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of a dream, and he gives to you a sign or a wonder, 2and the sign or the wonder comes to pass of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods (that you have not known) and let us serve them,” 3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of the dream. For YHWH your⁺ God is testing you⁺, to know whether you⁺ love YHWH your⁺ God with all your⁺ heart and with all your⁺ soul. 4After YHWH your⁺ God you⁺ shall walk, and Him you⁺ shall fear, and His commandments you⁺ shall keep, and His voice you⁺ shall obey, and Him you⁺ shall serve, and to Him you⁺ shall hold fast.

5And that prophet or that dreamer of the dream, he shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from YHWH your⁺ God—who brought you⁺ out from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery—to drive you out of the way that YHWH your God commanded you to walk in it. And you shall put away the evil from your midst.†

6If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known—you and your fathers— 7of the gods of the peoples who are all around you⁺, near to you or far off from you, from the end of the earth and to the end of the earth), 8you shall not consent to him nor listen to him. Nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor conceal him,

9but you must surely kill him. Your hand shall be the first against him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward. 10And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11And all Israel shall hear and fear, and not add to do such as this wickedness among you.

Idolatrous Cities to Be Destroyed

12If you hear someone in one of your cities that YHWH your God gives you to dwell there, one saying, 13men, the sons of worthlessness, have gone out from among you and enticed those dwelling in their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (that you⁺ have not known), 14then you shall inquire, and search out, and ask diligently, and behold, it is true, the thing is established—this abomination that has been done among you— 15you must surely strike those dwelling in that city with the mouth of the sword, utterly destroying† it and all that is in it, and its livestock, with the mouth of the sword.

16And all its plunder you shall gather into the middle of the street, and burn with the fire the city and all its plunder completely before YHWH your God. And it shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again.

17And in your hand you shall not cling to any of the accursed things, so that YHWH will turn from the burning of His anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you as He swore to your fathers, 18because you have listened to the voice of YHWH your God, to keep all His commandments that I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of YHWH your God.