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13 If prophets or those who divine by dreams appear among you and promise you omens or portents, 2and the omens or the portents declared by them take place, and they say, “Let us follow other gods” (whom you have not known) “and let us serve them,” 3you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams; for the L ord your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love the L ord your God with all your heart and soul. 4The L ord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast. 5But those prophets or those who divine by dreams shall be put to death for having spoken treason against the L ord your God—who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery—to turn you from the way in which the L ord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 6 If anyone secretly entices you—even if it is your brother, your father’s son or your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend—saying, “Let us go worship other gods,” whom neither you nor your ancestors have known, 7any of the gods of the peoples that are around you, whether near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other, 8you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them. 9But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10Stone them to death for trying to turn you away from the L ord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11Then all Israel shall hear and be afraid, and never again do any such wickedness. 12 If you hear it said about one of the towns that the L ord your God is giving you to live in, 13that scoundrels from among you have gone out and led the inhabitants of the town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods,” whom you have not known, 14then you shall inquire and make a thorough investigation. If the charge is established that such an abhorrent thing has been done among you, 15you shall put the inhabitants of that town to the sword, utterly destroying it and everything in it—even putting its livestock to the sword. 16All of its spoil you shall gather into its public square; then burn the town and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the L ord your God. It shall remain a perpetual ruin, never to be rebuilt. 17Do not let anything devoted to destruction stick to your hand, so that the L ord may turn from his fierce anger and show you compassion, and in his compassion multiply you, as he swore to your ancestors, 18if you obey the voice of the L ord your God by keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, doing what is right in the sight of the L ord your God. New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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16. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it. They are commanded to burn all the furniture, and whatever is found in the city; and the reason is subjoined, because it is accursed (anathema) If any city was taken in war, all that God here commands to be burnt was to be counted as spoil, for the Jews would pollute themselves by its very touch. It might be indeed that God’s intention was to obviate covetousness, lest the Jews should mix up their zeal with rapine; but the principal reason was that which Moses expresses, that the people might be more accustomed to detest the crime, which they saw to be so cruelly punished by God. The word חרם, cherem, which the Greeks have translated anathema, 6464 “Execration.” — Fr. properly means destruction, or abolition; but that which God would have annihilated, because He cannot bear the sight of it, is called חרם, before Him. Therefore it is said, “Thou shalt burn it to the Lord thy God;” for the translation which some give, “for (propter) the Lord,” is not quite literal. The sum is to this effect, that if they fear God’s vengeance for themselves, and desire to propitiate His favor, they must hold in execration the houses and property of those who have rebelled against the Law. Moreover, it is implied by the words “mercy” and “compassion,” that if God should deal with absolute justice, the wickedness of one city would suffice to destroy a whole country. Whence we gather, that a kind of expiation is demanded to propitiate God, when they are commanded utterly to destroy the city, and to cast every remnant of it into the fire. |