Deuteronomy 13 commentary

DEUTERONOMY 13 COMMENTARY

EDITED BY GLENN PEASE

Worshiping Other Gods

1 [a]If a prophet, or one who foretells by

dreams, appears among you and announces to

you a sign or wonder,

BARNES, "A prophet, or a dreamer of dreams - Compare Num_12:6. The “prophet” received his revelations by vision or direct oral communication Num_24:16; 2Sa_7:4; 2Co_12:2; “the dreamer of dreams” through the medium of a dream 1Ki_3:5; Mat_2:13.

CLARKE, "If there arise among you a prophet - Any pretending to have a Divine influence, so as to be able perfectly to direct others in the way of salvation; or a dreamer of dreams - one who pretends that some deity has spoken to him in the

night-season; and giveth thee a sign, אות oth, what appears to be a miraculous proof

of his mission; or a wonder, מופת mopheth, some type or representation of what he

wishes to bring you over to: as some have pretended to have received a consecrated image from heaven; hence the origin of the Palladium, Numa’s Shields, and many of the deities among the Hindoos. But here the word seems to mean some portentous sign, such as an eclipse, which he who knew when it would take place might predict to the people who knew nothing of the matter, and thereby accredit his pretensions.

GILL, "If there arise among you a prophet,.... A false prophet, a lying prophet, as the Targum of Jonathan; one that pretends to be a true prophet, and to be sent of God, and to come from him with a message from him, a new revelation or doctrine, or in his name, to foretell things to come; the former is chiefly meant. Such prophets did arise in Israel before the time of Christ, and have since arose under the Christian name; see 2Pe_2:1,

or a dreamer of dreams; the same with the prophet, only to be distinguished by the different manner of their having the mind and will of God revealed to them, pretended to; either by vision or by dream, which were the two usual ways in which the Lord spake to the true prophets, Num_12:6 so that the prophet is one who

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pretended he had a vision from the Lord, and the dreamer one that had a dream from him, or something revealed to him in a dream; and dreams are sometimes used for false doctrines, vain, deceitful, and illusory; see Jer_23:25. The Targum of Jonathan calls him"a dreamer of a dream of pride:''such persons are generally prompted by the pride of their own hearts to take such a method to make themselves famous and respected among men; and usually bring such doctrines with them which are agreeable to the pride and vanity of human nature:

and giving thee a sign or a wonder; for the confirmation of his mission and doctrine; such as Moses wrought before the children of Israel and before Pharaoh. Signs are expressions or representations of things to come to pass; wonders, such as either do, or seem to exceed the common course of nature, or be contrary to it.

HENRY 1-2, "Here is, I. A very strange supposition, Deu_13:1, Deu_13:2. 1. It is strange that there should arise any among themselves, especially any pretending to vision and prophecy, who should instigate them to go and serve other gods. Was it possible that any who had so much knowledge of the methods of divine revelation as to be able to personate a prophet should yet have so little knowledge of the divine nature and will as to go himself and entice his neighbours after other gods? Could an Israelite ever be guilty of such impiety? Could a man of sense ever be guilty of such absurdity? We see it in our own day, and therefore may think it the less strange; multitudes that profess both learning and religion yet exciting both themselves and others, not only to worship God by images, but to give divine honour to saints and angels, which is no better than going after other gods to serve them; such is the power of strong delusions. 2. It is yet more strange that the sign or wonder given for the confirmation of this false doctrine should come to pass. Can it be thought that God himself should give any countenance to such a vile proceeding? Did ever a false prophet work a true miracle? It is only supposed here for two reasons: - (1.) To strengthen the caution here given against hearkening to such a one. “Though it were possible that he should work a true miracle, yet you must not believe him if he tell you that you must serve other gods, for the divine law against that is certainly perpetual and unalterable.” The supposition is like that in Gal_1:8, If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you - which does not prove it possible that an angel should preach another gospel, but strongly expresses the certainty and perpetuity of that which we have received. So here, (2.) It is to fortify them against the danger of impostures and lying wonders (2Th_2:9): “Suppose the credentials he produces be so artfully counterfeited that you cannot discern the cheat, nor disprove them, yet, if they are intended to draw you to the service of other gods, that alone is sufficient to disprove them; no evidence can be admitted against so clear a truth as that of the unity of the Godhead, and so plain a law as that of worshipping the one only living and true God.” We cannot suppose that the God of truth should set his seal of miracles to a lie, to so gross a lie as is supposed in that temptation, Let us go after other gods. But if it be asked, Why is this false prophet permitted to counterfeit this broad seal? It is answered here (Deu_13:3): “The Lord you God proveth you. He suffers you to be set upon by such a temptation to try your constancy, that both those that are perfect and those that are false and corrupt may be made manifest. It is to prove you; therefore see that you acquit yourselves well in the trial, and stand your ground.”

JAMISON,"Deu_13:1-5. Enticers to idolatry to be put to death.

If there arise among you a prophet — The special counsels which follow arose

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out of the general precept contained in Deu_12:32; and the purport of them is, that every attempt to seduce others from the course of duty which that divine standard of faith and worship prescribes must not only be strenuously resisted, but the seducer punished by the law of the land. This is exemplified in three cases of enticement to idolatry.

a prophet — that is, some notable person laying claim to the character and authority of the prophetic office (Num_12:6; 1Sa_10:6), performing feats of dexterity or power in support of his pretensions, or even predicting events which occurred as he foretold; as, for instance, an eclipse which a knowledge of natural science might enable him to anticipate (or, as Caiaphas, Joh_18:14). Should the aim of such a one be to seduce the people from the worship of the true God, he is an impostor and must be put to death. No prodigy, however wonderful, no human authority, however great, should be allowed to shake their belief in the divine character and truth of a religion so solemnly taught and so awfully attested (compare Gal_1:8). The modern Jews appeal to this passage as justifying their rejection of Jesus Christ. But He possessed all the characteristics of a true prophet, and He was so far from alienating the people from God and His worship that the grand object of His ministry was to lead to a purer, more spiritual and perfect observance of the law.

CALVIN, "After having restrained the Israelites from the strange delusions of

the Gentiles, Moses now forbids them from being too credulous if false teachers

should arise from among themselves, and warns them diligently to beware of all

novel inventions, and not to turn aside in the very least degree from the Law, at

the instigation of any one. For there is peril to be apprehended, not only from

professed and manifest enemies, or from foreign superstitions, but Satan plots

also by means of intestine deceits, and abuses the holy name of God in order to

betray us. Therefore it behoves that the faith of the godly should not only be

externally fortified and protected by the ramparts of the word, lest corruption

should creep in from without, but also that it should be garrisoned within by the

same word, lest novel imaginations should secretly insinuate themselves and

destroy the purity of doctrine. Moreover, we gather from this prohibition that

there is such certainty in the divine doctrines as to prevent our faith from being

undermined or shaken, provided it has put forth into them living roots, and is

firmly grounded upon them. For it would be vain for God to warn us against

giving admission to false teachers, unless He, at the same time, shewed the means

by which they were to be guarded against. And assuredly nothing can be more

improbable than that religion should be ambiguous; and since the rule and

definition of it is faithfully prescribed and set forth in the Law, justly does God

require of His people that they should not waver, but constantly persist in the

truth delivered to them. For truly does Isaiah declare respecting the Law, that in

it it has not been said in vain to the seed of Jacob, that they should seek God’s

face. (297) (Isaiah 45:19.) But, in seeking God, it would not be sufficient to teach

what is right, unless men’s minds are established in it; it is requisite, therefore,

that religion should be sure and firm, or it will not be duly ordered. Nor is there

any doubt that what Paul witnesses of the Gospel was true also of the Law, viz.,

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that it armed its disciples against all the storms of temptation, that they “should

be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of

doctrine, by the sleight of men,” etc. (Ephesians 4:14.) But the words before us,

when examined more closely and regularly, will shew, with greater clearness, the

aim of the matter.

1.If there arise among you. We already perceive that the question is not

respecting the falsities and errors which Satan had spread throughout the world,

but respecting those which were to appear in the very bosom of the Church, as if

it had been said that the Law was not only given in order to separate the

Israelites from heathen nations, but to keep themselves in the purity and

integrity of the faith; for just as now-a-days Christ betroths the Church to

Himself by the preachers of the Gospel, (2 Corinthians 11:2,) that she may devote

herself as a chaste virgin to His obedience, and not allow herself to be withdrawn

from the simplicity of the faith by any seductions; so of old God espoused His

ancient people to Himself, and bade them close their ears against impostors, who

are, as it were, the seducers of Satan tempting them to violate that sacred and

special bond of marriage whereby God would be united with His people. We

shall speedily see wherefore God would have His Church exposed to this evil.

Meanwhile it is useful to admonish believers of their danger, that they may be

constantly watching against the snares of Satan; for this abomination did not

only prevail in that particular age, but it will have its evil influence even to the

end of the world. We must remember what Peter says, that “as there were false

prophets among” the Jews of old, so also in the kingdom of Christ

“there shall be false teachers who privily shall bring in damnable heresies.” (2

Peter 2:1.)

Moses, however, does not merely speak of domestic enemies, but, of such as shall

assume the title of Prophets in order that they may deceive with greater license

and impunity. From hence we infer that it is not enough to have an honorable

position, or a plausible name, whether pastor, or prophet, or priest, unless it be

allied to sincerity in accordance with our calling; for who are the persons whom

God here commands to be avoided and held in abomination? Just those who

boasted themselves to be Prophets, but who, when carefully inquired into, were

obliged to drop their mask, and driven to confusion. A particular appellation is

subjoined to their general one, since the same individual is spoken of as “a

dreamer of dreams,” because God of old time manifested Himself to the Prophets

sometimes in visions and sometimes in dreams. Either of these, then, was an

honorable pretext for conciliating favor. But the temptation which follows was

still more dangerous, viz., if such an one should have commended himself by a

successful prediction; for who would despise a prophecy authenticated by events,

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especially when Isaiah declares this to be the attribute of God alone? (Isaiah

45:21.) And the difficulty here is still increased, because in chap. 18, God appears

to distinguish false Prophets from true ones by this very test. (298) Thus I resolve

the difficulty, God’s claiming to Himself the glory of foretelling events does not

prevent Him from occasionally conferring even on the ministers of Satan the

power of prophecy respecting some particular point. Balaam was worse than any

hireling crier, wishing as he did to frustrate the eternal decrees of God, and yet

we know that his tongue was directed by the divine inspiration of the Spirit so as

to be the proclaimer of that grace which he had been hired to quench. There is,

therefore, no inconsistency in this, that a man should be a perfidious impostor,

and still endowed at the same time with a particular gift of prophecy, not so as

always to deliver true revelations, (as, for instance, Caiaphas, who prophesied

correctly once, was not always veracious,) but in so far as by God’s permission it

shall be given him to foreknow this or that, so that one example of truth-telling

may be the cloak for many falsehoods. Fitly, then, and properly, in the other

passage, does God, by Moses, reprove the vanity of those rash spirits who

promise what is not fulfilled. For we must take into consideration His intention.

Many are there who bring themselves into notice by clandestine acts, and at

length boldly burst forth and boast themselves to be prophets, whilst the people

are in doubt whether they ought so to consider them. But since it most frequently

happens that the folly of such men is betrayed by marks of infamy and disgrace

inflicted upon them from above, so that the world may see that they have spoken

falsely, justly does God declare that the event of their predictions is to be

regarded, lest the Israelites should promiscuously and unreflectingly receive

whatever they may hear. The principle, therefore, is established, that those speak

in God’s name who predict what really comes to pass; for they could not declare

the truth respecting things unknown to man unless God Himself should dictate it

to them. This is the tendency of the answer of Jeremiah to Hananiah, —

“The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old, prophesied both

against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of

pestilence. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the

prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord hath

truly sent him.” (Jeremiah 28:8.)

Hananiah promised that the war should end prosperously; but Jeremiah,

knowing that he lied, brings him to an experimental proof of his falsehood, in

case the facts should not correspond with what he had said. Thus far there is no

inconsistency in our statement, that all true prophesies must proceed from God,

and yet that the same Prophet who has predicted the truth may, in other points,

be a deceiver And especiallylet us remark the admonition of Paul, that

“because they (the reprobate) receive not the love of the truth, that they may be

saved; for this cause God sends them strong delusion, that they should believe a

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lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure

in unrighteousness.”

(2 Thessalonians 2:10,)

Hence we are taught that not only are the reins of Satan loosed in order that he

may do injury, but that he is armed with power effectively to drag on the

reprobate to final tied struction. Moses here teaches the same thing, for there are

no reasonable grounds for the differences between Hebrew commentators as to

the word sign. (299) It is unquestionable that signs were sometimes used in order

to obtain credit for prophesies, as when Isaiah walked naked, ( Isaiah 20:2,) and

Jeremiah wore a yoke on his neck, ( Jeremiah 18:10;) it is also unquestionable

that Satan often deceives by magical incantations; but I have no doubt that by

the words signifying the sign and the wonder, Moses here means anything

incredible and unexpected, for the purpose of vaticination. The Hebrews use the

word מופתים , mophethim, to express miracles whereby God portends anything

future, as if He spoke from heaven. The word אות , oth, is more general, and is

sometimes used for a banner, or a watchword, or signal, (symbolum.) Both are

here put for extraordinary signs which testify the power of God, as if it were

present; in this sense, Christ warns His disciples to beware of signs and lying

prodigies. ( Matthew 24:11.) But although Satan dazzles the eyes with his

illusions, so as in his false rivalry to win to himself the glory of God, yet have we

shewn from St. Paul, and Moses has before declared, that impostors in their

working of miracles are the ministers of God’s vengeance, in order that the

reprobate may be taken in their snares. Should any object that signs would be

useless, which may be as well dangerous deceptions as confirmations of the truth,

I reply, that such license has never been accorded to the devil, as that the light of

God should not in the end shine forth from the midst of the darkness. It will

happen, therefore, that the true power of God may be obscured for a time, (as we

have seen before in the history of the magicians,) but that it will never be

overwhelmed. Thus in the miracles, whereby the Law was ratified, the glory of

God so shone forth that they might obtain credit without any hesitation from the

godly. Such, without controversy, are the miracles which authenticate the

Gospel, because they present evidences inscribed upon them by God by which all

suspicion of deceit is fully removed. And, indeed, since men’s minds are involved

in dull stupidity, and are blind even to the ordinary course of God’s dealings, so

also they are almost always mistaken with respect to miracles, unless His word

enlightens them to dispel the darkness. In order, therefore, that we may duly

profit by signs, an inseparable connection must be established between them and

doctrine; and Moses rightly teaches that they must be repudiated who shall

endeavor to pervert piety under the pretext of signs, because they impiously and

wickedly divide things which God has joined together, and improperly divert to

a contrary use the signs which only serve as aids to righteous doctrine. But after

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the religion of the Jews had been sealed by sure and evident signs, it was wrong

for them to attend to accidental signs, and not altogether without base

ingratitude. We now arrive at the sum of this passage, viz., that they must

persevere in the worship of the one God, so that not even prodigies should have

any force to shake the people’s minds. The clause, therefore, “which thou hast

not known,” must be observed; whereby Moses signifies that the glory of the

God which they serve was so certainly testified that their levity in turning this

way or that would be inexcusable; and thus the knowledge which ought to be

firmly implanted in their hearts, and to abide therein, is opposed to all the

artifices of the devil, which only affect unstable minds.

HAWKER, "This Chapter is a continuation of the same subject as the former.

Particular and special precepts are contained in it to arm against the motives to

idolatry; the persons tempting to it are to be stoned, and even the cities where

this sin is committed, are to be razed to the earth.

Deuteronomy 13:1

To those who know not the deceitfulness of the human heart, or the melancholy

state of blindness and ignorance to which we are fallen, the precept in this verse

may appear strange. But Reader! danger of deception concerning true and false

prophets was not peculiar to the Israelites. Observe what Paul saith of the last

times concerning apostacy, and then pause over the subject, and pray for grace

to resist every temptation of this kind. See 1 Timothy 4:1.

PETT, "Introduction

The Covenant Stipulations, Covenant Making at Shechem, Blessings and

Cursings (Deuteronomy 12:1 to Deuteronomy 29:1).

In this section of Deuteronomy we first have a description of specific

requirements that Yahweh laid down for His people. These make up the second

part of the covenant stipulations for the covenant expressed in Deuteronomy

4:45 to Deuteronomy 29:1 and also for the covenant which makes up the whole

book. They are found in chapters 12-26. As we have seen Deuteronomy 1:1 to

Deuteronomy 4:44 provide the preamble and historical prologue for the overall

covenant, followed by the general stipulations in chapters 5-11. There now,

therefore, in 12-26 follow the detailed stipulations which complete the main body

of the covenant. These also continue the second speech of Moses which began in

Deuteronomy 5:1.

Overall in this speech Moses is concerned to connect with the people. It is to the

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people that his words are spoken rather than the priests so that much of the

priestly legislation is simply assumed. Indeed it is remarkably absent in

Deuteronomy except where it directly touches on the people. Anyone who read

Deuteronomy on its own would wonder at the lack of cultic material it contained,

and at how much the people were involved. It concentrates on their interests, and

not those of the priests and Levites, while acknowledging the responsibility that

they had towards both priests and Levites.

And even where the cultic legislation more specifically connects with the people,

necessary detail is not given, simply because he was aware that they already had

it in writing elsewhere. Their knowledge of it is assumed. Deuteronomy is

building on a foundation already laid. In it Moses was more concerned to get

over special aspects of the legislation as it was specifically affected by entry into

the land, with the interests of the people especially in mind. The suggestion that

it was later written in order to bring home a new law connected with the Temple

does not fit in with the facts. Without the remainder of the covenant legislation in

Exodus/Leviticus/Numbers to back it up, its presentation often does not make

sense from a cultic point of view.

This is especially brought home by the fact that when he refers to their approach

to God he speaks of it in terms of where they themselves stood or will stand when

they do approach Him. They stand not on Sinai but in Horeb. They stand not in

the Sanctuary but in ‘the place’, the site of the Sanctuary. That is why he

emphasises Horeb, which included the area before the Mount, and not just Sinai

itself (which he does not mention). And why he speaks of ‘the place’ which

Yahweh chose, which includes where the Tabernacle is sited and where they

gather together around the Tabernacle, and not of the Sanctuary itself. He wants

them to feel that they have their full part in the whole.

These detailed stipulations in chapters 12-26 will then be followed by the details

of the covenant ceremony to take place at the place which Yahweh has chosen at

Shechem (Deuteronomy 27), followed by blessings and cursings to do with the

observance or breach of the covenant (Deuteronomy 28).

I. INSTRUCTION WITH REGARD TO WORSHIP AND RIGHTNESS

BEFORE YAHWEH (Deuteronomy 12:1 to Deuteronomy 16:17).

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In this first group of regulations in Deuteronomy 12:1 to Deuteronomy 16:7

emphasis is laid on proper worship and rightness before Yahweh, looked at from

the people’s point of view. They include:

· Regulations with regard to the Central Sanctuary as the one place where

Yahweh is to be officially worshipped with emphasis on the people’s side of

things and their participation. They are to worship there joyfully (Deuteronomy

12).

· Regulations with regard to avoidance of idolatry as it affects the people

lest they lose their cause for joy (Deuteronomy 13).

· Regulations for the people with regard to ritual wholeness and cleanness

so that they might reveal themselves as suited to worship joyfully in the place

which Yahweh would choose (Deuteronomy 14:1-21).

· Regulations for the people with regard to tithing mainly ignoring levitical

aspects (Deuteronomy 14:22-27). Here they were to share their joy with others

who would thus be able to rejoice with them.

· Regulations with regard to poverty as a slur on Yahweh (Deuteronomy

14:28 to Deuteronomy 15:11). This was to be allayed by a special use of the tithe

every third year and a release from debt every seventh year. To allow unrelieved

poverty in the land would prevent their being able to approach Yahweh with joy

and to enjoy His prosperity.

· Regulations with regard to Israelite Habiru bondsmen and bondswomen

and how they were to be their treated (Deuteronomy 15:12-18). Again the

emphasis is on generosity towards those whose need was greatest.

· Regulations with regard to firstlings, who represented their own relief

from bondage, with the emphasis on their being Yahweh’s and thus to be royally

treated, and to be eaten joyfully in the place which Yahweh would choose. The

emphasis is on the people’s participation (Deuteronomy 15:19-23).

· Regulations with regard to the three main feasts, with emphasis on the

fact that they must be eaten at the place which Yahweh will choose and that the

last two of them must be celebrated joyfully, again with the emphasis on the

people’s participation throughout (Deuteronomy 16:1-17).

But central to it all is the Central Sanctuary, the place where Yahweh sets His

name. The place where He meets with His people, and they with Him, and the

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need for them to be in the right spirit so as to do so joyfully.

Chapter 13 Warnings Against Idolatry And Guidance On How To Deal With

Those Who Lead Men Astray.

This chapter continues the closing theme in Deuteronomy 12 where emphasis has

been laid on observing the word given by God to Moses. It warns against those

who would seek to lead men astray from that word by various means. The

chapter begins with how to deal with false prophets who come from their midst

with signs and wonders (Deuteronomy 13:1-5), goes on to deal with family

members and close friends who may seek to use their influence to lead their

family astray (Deuteronomy 13:6-11), and finally ends with how to deal with

cities led astray, not by foreigners, but by worthless people ‘in your midst’, that

become bastions of idolatry so that men are led astray by persuasive leaders and

popular opinion (Deuteronomy 13:12-18). These were the three major influences

on their spiritual lives, preachers, family and environment. They must ensure

that they were not led astray by any of them.

The emphasis in all three cases on the fact that this was ‘the enemy within’

explains the harshness of the sentences. They should know better. They were

acting as traitors ‘in the midst’. And in times of emergency, as this would be,

such people could only be dealt with in one way, by death. The purity of Israel

could depend on it.

Such sentiments are regularly found in treaty forms where it is conceived that

men may come among a subject people and seek to lead them to follow others in

rebellion against the overlord. Some treaties even cite prophets and family as

possible sources of this. Others cite cities. All were likely culprits for this kind of

behaviour. Such ideas have been adapted here by Moses. How common in

treaties these ideas were we do not know, for as yet we do not have sufficient

examples of such treaties from wide enough sources.

For the Christian the lesson is that we also must beware lest we be led by such

people or such influences away from ‘the simplicity which is in Christ’ (2

Corinthians 11:3). There is only one test of truth, the words that come from God.

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Verses 1-5

Chapter 13 Warnings Against Idolatry And Guidance On How To Deal With

Those Who Lead Men Astray.

This chapter continues the closing theme in Deuteronomy 12 where emphasis has

been laid on observing the word given by God to Moses. It warns against those

who would seek to lead men astray from that word by various means. The

chapter begins with how to deal with false prophets who come from their midst

with signs and wonders (Deuteronomy 13:1-5), goes on to deal with family

members and close friends who may seek to use their influence to lead their

family astray (Deuteronomy 13:6-11), and finally ends with how to deal with

cities led astray, not by foreigners, but by worthless people ‘in your midst’, that

become bastions of idolatry so that men are led astray by persuasive leaders and

popular opinion (Deuteronomy 13:12-18). These were the three major influences

on their spiritual lives, preachers, family and environment. They must ensure

that they were not led astray by any of them.

The emphasis in all three cases on the fact that this was ‘the enemy within’

explains the harshness of the sentences. They should know better. They were

acting as traitors ‘in the midst’. And in times of emergency, as this would be,

such people could only be dealt with in one way, by death. The purity of Israel

could depend on it.

Such sentiments are regularly found in treaty forms where it is conceived that

men may come among a subject people and seek to lead them to follow others in

rebellion against the overlord. Some treaties even cite prophets and family as

possible sources of this. Others cite cities. All were likely culprits for this kind of

behaviour. Such ideas have been adapted here by Moses. How common in

treaties these ideas were we do not know, for as yet we do not have sufficient

examples of such treaties from wide enough sources.

For the Christian the lesson is that we also must beware lest we be led by such

people or such influences away from ‘the simplicity which is in Christ’ (2

Corinthians 11:3). There is only one test of truth, the words that come from God.

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Beware of False Prophets (Deuteronomy 13:1-5).

The warning here is against those who come with deceitful words, even showing

signs and wonders, but speak contrary to God’s word. So-called prophets were a

common feature of life in the Ancient Near East. They professed to have contact

with the gods. We have only to consider Balaam to recognise the influence that

they could have, and how they were valued (Numbers 22-24). However, this

prophet would be one who had arisen ‘in the midst’ of them. Thus it would seem

a false prophet of Israel is indicated, even one who cites Yahweh. He comes

claiming extraordinary powers. But signs and wonder are never to be taken as

proof of the genuineness of the wonderworker, nor of the truth of what he says.

Note that this immediately follows Deuteronomy 12:32. What Moses has

commanded must not be laid aside because of some prophet, even one who

claims to come from God. What he says must be tested against Moses’ words.

Today we have a larger ‘word of God’ including the teaching of Jesus Himself. It

is important that we know it well so that we too might not be led astray, and so

that we can help those who are led astray. All prophets must be tested against

His word. In Paul’s words they must be ‘judged’.

For the place that Yahweh has chosen so that He could set His name there will be

countered by all kinds of temptations to turn from Him to other names and other

gods. And in this chapter we are given three examples of such. To follow after

false prophets, or false family, or false fellow-countrymen can only lead to

disaster.

Analysis using Moses words:

a If there arise in the midst of you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and

he give you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come about, of which

he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods, which you have not known,

and let us serve them (Deuteronomy 13:1-2).

b You shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of

dreams, for Yahweh your God proves you, to know whether you love Yahweh

your God with all your heart and with all your soul (Deuteronomy 13:3).

c You shall walk after Yahweh your God, and fear Him (Deuteronomy 13:4

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a).

c And keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and you shall serve

Him, and cleave to Him (Deuteronomy 13:4 b).

b And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death,

because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your God, who brought you out

of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage

(Deuteronomy 13:5).

a To draw you aside out of the way which Yahweh your God commanded

you to walk in. So shall you put away the evil from the midst of you

(Deuteronomy 13:6).

Note that in ‘a’ the false prophet arises to deceive by signs and wonders and to

lead in the way of false gods, and in the parallel he is seeking to draw them away

from Yahweh their God. In ‘b’ they are not to listen to the prophet or dreamer of

dreams for it is a test of Yahweh their God of their love for Him, while in the

parallel that prophet or dreamer of dreams is to be put to death for speaking

rebellion against Yahweh their God Who is their Deliverer. In ‘c’ they are to

walk after Yahweh their God and fear Him, and in the parallel they are to keep

His commandments, obey Him and cleave to Him.

COFFMAN\, "In this chapter three situations are discussed, in each of which,

Israel was ordered to put to death the offender.

(1) First, there is the case of some alleged "prophet" soliciting the people to

idolatry on the basis of some dream, portent, or wonder which he claimed as

proof of his authority (Deuteronomy 13:1-5);

(2) there is the case of solicitation to idolatry by one's close kinsman

(Deuteronomy 13:6-12),

(3) and then there is the case of a whole city that has fallen under the power of

Satan (Deuteronomy 13:13-18).

In every instance, the commandment was to put to death the offenders, and in

the case of a whole city, it was to be placed under the ban and utterly destroyed.

The critical schools once traced what they thought were multiple sources for the

material in this chapter, Davies, for example, naming both "D" and "E" as

having a part in it.[1] It is now known that ONE author, not many, gave us these

instructions, and that a SINGLE purpose is evident throughout:

"In the ancient suzerainty treaties, it was required of the vassal that he must not

connive at evil words spoken against the suzerain, whether they amounted to an

affront or a conspiracy. The vassal must report the insult or the fomenting of a

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revolt. In case of an actual rebellion, he must undertake military operations

against the offenders. Moreover, he must manifest fidelity to his lord in such

cases no matter who the rebel might be, whether prince or nearest relative. All of

this finds its counterpart in Deuteronomy. Stylistically, the chapter is cast in the

casuistic form characteristic of ancient law codes."[2]

"If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he

give thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he

spoke unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known,

and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or

unto that dreamer of dreams: for Jehovah your God proveth you, to know

whether ye love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye

shall walk after Jehovah your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments,

and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that

prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he hath

spoken rebellion against Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of

Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage, to draw thee aside out of

the way which Jehovah thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put

away the evil from the midst of thee."

The amazing thing here is that the question of whether or not the false prophet

could actually perform such signs or wonders is treated as irrelevant! What if he

did, or could? "What stamped the prophet false in this context is the

doctrine!"[3] The possibility that evil men could indeed do wonders "through the

power of Satan" is allowed in both Old Testament and New Testament. Paul

spoke of the "lying miracles" which would be displayed by the apostate church

(2 Thessalonians 2:9), and it surely is implied in this passage that God Himself

would, on occasions, allow false prophets to display some signs of credibility in

order to "test" the true loyalty of the people.

Adam Clarke gave as an example of how a lying "portent" might be given, the

case of one who, through scientific calculations, knew when an eclipse would

occur, "predicted it" for people who knew nothing of such matters, and, sure

enough, it came to pass![4] The plausible nature of the deception practiced in this

case was enhanced by the fact that dreams indeed were one of the manners in

which God actually communicated to the prophets of old (Numbers 12:6). Also,

"A false prophet's predictions are not always wrong. If they were, no one would

believe him."[5] "God allows some of them their restricted sphere of power to

test the loyalty of His people."[6] In the case of questionable "prophets" or

"teachers," the real issue is not: "Did he perform a miracle? but is he furthering,

promoting, and teaching the will of Christ?"[7] It is not necessary to suppose

that all miracles claimed by false prophets and teachers are deceptions. Some of

them, even many of them could be authentic, because as Christ said, "For there

shall arise false christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and

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wonders, so as to lead many astray, if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24).

As Keil said, "Such miracles are wrought in the power of Satan."[8]

Some might suppose that the penalty of death affixed to such offenses as the ones

mentioned here was "very severe," but it should be remembered that, "The

purpose of purging the land of all idolatries also required the removal of any

Israelites who became infected with the same idolatry."[9] "It would have been a

mockery of Divine justice, if Canaanite cities had been destroyed for their

idolatry, and then the idolatrous cities of the Israelites were allowed to

stand."[10]

"So shalt thou put away ..." (Deuteronomy 13:5). "Thou" here is plural, showing

that the whole community "must clear itself of all complicity with the specified

evil."[11]

The stern demand for the death penalty for all such false prophets and teachers

"shows how absurd it is to treat Deuteronomy 5:17 as being in any sense an

argument against capital punishment."[12] The context here as well as parallel

passages in Deuteronomy 17:7 and Leviticus 20:2 indicate that in all such cases,

"There was to be a formal judicial inquiry, and that the manner of execution was

to be by stoning. This would make the whole community a participant in the

execution, thus clearing them of all complicity in the condemned actions."[13]

BENSON "Deuteronomy 13:1. Moses, foreseeing how liable the Israelites, in

after ages, would be to be deluded by false prophets, who, under pretence of

divine revelations, or communications of divine power, while indeed they were

assisted by no other than wicked and infernal spirits, might foretel some future

events, or work some wondrous and unaccountable things as demonstrations of

their false doctrine, and thereby persuade others to join in their idolatrous

worship, here proceeds to show how such false pretenders to divine inspiration

might be known, and lays down a law, according to which they were to be dealt

with. If there arise among you — One of your own nation, for such might both

be seduced, and afterward become seducers of others; a prophet — That is, a

false prophet, one who falsely pretends to have received a divine message. Or a

dreamer of dreams — One that pretends some god has revealed himself to him in

visions or dreams. And giveth thee a sign — Foretels some future and wonderful

events as a sure sign thereof; as the prophets of Jehovah were wont to do, 1

Samuel 10:2-7; 1 Kings 13:3. It must be observed that sign and wonder here

signify the same thing, and comprehend all miracles whatsoever, whether the

foretelling of something that is out of the reach of human knowledge, or the

performing some work that exceeds human power.

WHEDON, "1. A prophet, or a dreamer — Two methods of divine revelation are

here mentioned. Comp. Numbers 12:6 : “If there be a prophet among you, I the

Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a

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dream.” It is taken for granted that what this prophet announced comes to pass,

or that prodigies have been performed, but they are like the signs and lying

wonders of 2 Thessalonians 2:6. If such a prophet taught the people to depart

from Jehovah he was not to be heard. This is in agreement with what Paul, in

Galatians 1:8, says: “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other

gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”

COKE, "Ver. 1-4. If there arise among you a prophet, &c.— The divinity of

their religion, and its peculiar opposition to idolatry, having been fully shewn,

Moses now proceeds to put the strongest case possible; acquainting them, that if

any prophet or dreamer of dreams, any person pretending to supernatural

inspiration, should give them a sign or a wonder, should predict or perform any

thing extraordinary, and make that the ground of drawing them aside from the

worship of their God to that of idols, they should utterly disregard any such sign

or wonder, nor be at all influenced by it to hearken to the words of the deluder;

assured that he could not be commissioned by God, who, being always the same,

can never contradict himself: and in this confidence, though perhaps they might

not be able to discover the mode of his deceit, or the method by which he was

able either to foretel or to perform any thing extraordinary; though they could

not tell whether he did it by mere juggling, or by communications with evil

spirits; yet they were absolutely to put such a person to death, infallibly assured

that no messenger from God could ever attempt to seduce them from the worship

of that God. From the 3rd verse one may be led to believe, that, as the Almighty

sometimes permits other evils for the same end of proving his people, so he

thought fit to allow among the Jews such persons as are here spoken of to

perform things really stupendous and miraculous; and how far he may have

permitted evil spirits to assist such persons is not for us to determine. This,

however, by no means impugns his wisdom or goodness; for as, in the present

case, he gave the Israelites such an infallible criterion whereby to determine, so,

in all cases, we may be assured that he will either vouchsafe to mankind such

criterions, or give to the miracles which real prophets perform such evident

marks of divinity and superiority over those of others, as shall never leave the

human mind in doubt. Indeed, were we not infallibly assured of this from the

very nature of God, we could have no sure foundation whereupon to build our

faith, nor any infallible test whereby to prove the truth of a revelation. This

subject has been completely handled by Dr. Chapman, in his excellent work

called Eusebius, chap. 2. Those, however, who desire to see more and different

opinions, may consult Bishop Stillingfleet's Origines Sacrae, lib. ii. c. 10, where

he speaks of discerning true miracles from false; Wells's Sermons at Boyle's

Lecture, and Bishop Chandler's Defence. Mr. Locke very well observes upon the

subject, that "since God's power is paramount to all, and no opposition can be

made against him with a force equal to his; and since his honour and goodness

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can never be supposed to suffer his messenger and his truth to be borne down by

the appearance of a greater power on the side of an impostor, and in favour of a

lie; whenever there is an opposition, the signs which carry with them the evident

marks of a greater power will always be a certain evidence that the truth and

divine mission are on that side on which they appear. For, though the discovery,

how the lying wonders are or can be produced, be beyond the capacity of the

ignorant, and often beyond the conception of the most knowing spectator, yet he

cannot but know that they are not seals set by God to his truth for the attesting

of it; since they are opposed by miracles, which carry the evident marks of a

greater and superior power, and therefore they cannot at all shake the authority

of one so supported. God can never be thought to suffer that a lie, set up in

opposition to a truth coming from him, should be backed with a greater power

than he will shew for the confirmation and propagation of a doctrine which He

has revealed to the end it might be believed."

And giveth thee a sign or a wonder— Le Clerc thinks, that sign and wonder here

signify nearly the same thing: but Houbigant asserts, that the particle או ou,

rendered or, is disjunctive in the Hebrew; and that, consequently, these two

words denote different things. Accordingly, he thinks that a wonder is something

more than a sign: the latter signifying a miracle subjected to the human sight, the

former such a one as affects man; of which kind were the Egyptian plagues. Both

kinds, however, here mean true miracles, things supernatural; for the original

words are never used in sacred writings for the jugglings and fallacies of

diviners, and therefore the miracles of Moses and Aaron are never expressed by

any other words. In the 2nd verse, there is a transposition very frequent in

Scripture; the two verses may be read together thus: If there arise among you a

prophet, &c. saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, (had

no communication with, or intelligence of,) and let us serve them; and shall give

you a sign or a wonder, which shall come to pass, according to what he spake

unto thee, &c.

K&D 1-3, "The first case. If a prophet, or one who had dreams, should rise up to summon to the worship of other gods, with signs and wonders which came to pass, the Israelites were not to hearken to his words, but to put him to death. The

introduction of חלום a dreamer of dreams,” along with the prophet, answers the“ ,חלם

two media of divine revelation, the vision and the dream, by which, according to Num_12:6, God made known His will. With regard to the signs and wonders

(mopheth, see at Exo_4:21) with which such a prophet might seek to accredit his

higher mission, it is taken for granted that they come to pass (וא�); yet for all that, the

Israelites were to give no heed to such a prophet, to walk after other gods. It follows from this, that the person had not been sent by God, but as a false prophet, and that

the signs and wonders which he gave were not wonders effected by God, but σηµε�α

κα��τέρατα ψεύδους (“lying sings and wonders,” 2Th_2:9); i.e., not merely seeming

miracles, but miracles wrought in the power of the wicked one, Satan, the possibility

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and reality of which even Christ attests (Mat_24:24). - The word לאמר, saying, is

dependent upon the principal verb of the sentence: “if a prophet rise up...saying, We will go after other gods.”

SBC 1-3, "I. If the text teaches us how the true Jewish prophet would speak to his people, and in what spirit they would hear him, it teaches us who read him how we are to receive his words. The real significance of prophecies is felt when they are viewed in connection with the course of the Divine government. The interpreter is not to be heard unless he speaks to us first of a present God, of One who is in covenant with us, as He was with our fathers, who is calling on us every hour to turn from our idols to Him. If this is not the substance of his teaching, if all his predictions do not flow out of it, he is not speaking in the spirit of Scripture; for us, at all events, he is speaking falsely.

II. What I have said of prophecy applies also to miracles. The text does not separate them, nor can we. We turn to the signs and wonders in the New Testament, as in the Old, to prove that God was speaking them. Do we not rather need the assurance that God is speaking to explain the signs and wonders? If we try to ascend from the sign to God, do we really ever find Him? How meanly we think of the Gospel when we suppose that it cannot be presented at once to the hearts and consciences of sinful men, but must be ushered in with a long array of proofs which the great majority of people find it much harder to receive than that which is proved, nay, which I suspect they never do receive till they have first embraced that.

F. D. Maurice, The Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament, p. 274.

Reference: Deut 13—Parker, vol. iv., p. 229.

BI 1-3, "Ye are the children of the Lord your God.

Israel’s relationship to God

Moses here tells Israel—

I. How God had dignified them, as a peculiar people, with three distinguishable privileges, which were their honour, and figures of those spiritual blessings in heavenly things with which God has in Christ blessed us.

1. Here is election. “The Lord hath chosen thee” (Deu_14:2); not for their own merits, or for any good works foreseen, but because He would magnify the riches of His power and grace among them. And thus were believers chosen (Eph_1:4).

2. Here is adoption. “Ye are the children of the Lord your God” (Deu_14:1); formed by Him into a people, owned by Him as His people, nay, His family, a people near unto Him, nearer than any other. Every “Israelite indeed” is a child of God; partaker of His nature and favour, His love and blessing.

3. Here is sanctification. “Thou art an holy people” (Deu_14:2); separated and set apart for God, devoted to His service, designed for His praise, governed by a holy law, graced by a holy tabernacle and the holy ordinances relating to it.

II. How they ought to distinguish themselves by a sober singularity from all the nations that were about them.

1. In their mourning. “Ye shall not cut yourselves” (Deu_14:1).

(1) They are forbidden to deform or hurt their own bodies upon any account. This is like a parent’s charge to his children that are foolish, careless, and

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wilful. The true meaning of such commandments is, do yourselves no harm; and this is also the design of those providences which most cross us, to remove from us those things by which we are in danger of doing ourselves injury. The body is for the Lord, and is to be used accordingly.

(2) They are forbidden to disturb and afflict their own minds with inordinate grief for the loss of near and dear relations. If your father die, “ye shall not cut yourselves,” you shall not sorrow more than is meet, for you are not fatherless, you have a Father who is great, living and permanent, even the holy, blessed God, whose children ye are.

2. In their meat. Their observance of this law would make them to be taken notice of in all mixed companies as a separate people, and preserve them from mingling themselves with their idolatrous neighbours.

(1) It is plain, in the law itself, that these precepts belonged only to the Jews, and were not moral nor of perpetual use, because not of perpetual obligation (Deu_14:21).

(2) It is plain, in the Gospel, that they are now antiquated and repealed (1Ti_4:4). (Matthew Henry, D. D.)

SIMEON, "THE JEWS’ LEADING OBJECTION TO CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED

Deuteronomy 13:1-3. If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and 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; thou 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.

IT has commonly, and with justice, been thought, that the two great pillars on which a revelation from God must stand, are, miracles, and prophecies. Without these, we cannot be assured, that any discovery which may have been made to man, is really divine. The points that are traced to a divine origin may be highly reasonable and excellent in themselves; yet, before they are clothed with a divine authority, we very properly ask, What proof is there that they are from God? what evidence do you give that they are not the offspring of your own mind? If they are from God, I take for granted that God does not leave you without witness: tell me then, what works do you perform, which no created power can perform; or what other credentials have you, whereby your heavenly mission may be known? If you can foretell things to come, I shall then know that you are from God; because none but God can certainly foreknow them: or if you can work things above, and contrary to the course of nature, then I shall know that you have that power from on high; because no created being can impart it.

This, I say, is the established mode of judging concerning a revelation from God: and, according as any thing professing to be from God is thus confirmed, or not, we give to it, or withhold from it, our assent. It is from grounds like these that we judge of the revelation given to Moses; and from similar grounds must we judge of the truth of Christianity also.

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We must indeed inspect the matter of the thing revealed, to see whether it be worthy of him from whom it is said to come; and from its internal evidence our faith will derive great strength: but still in the first instance we look rather to external proofs, such as we have before spoken of.

But the Jews imagine that they are precluded from judging of Christianity on such grounds as these, since Moses, in the passage we have just read, guards them against any such inferences as we are led to draw from the prophecies and miracles on which our religion is founded. He concedes that some prophecies may be uttered, and some miracles be wrought, in favour of a false religion; and that, even if that should be the case, the Jews are not to regard any evidences arising from those sources, but to hold fast their religion in opposition to them.

This is an objection commonly urged among the Jews, when we invite them to embrace the Christian religion. That we may meet it fairly, we will, first, state the objection in all its force, and then give what we apprehend to be the proper answer to it.

I. We begin then with stating the objection; and we will do it in such a way as to give the Jew all possible advantage.

The scope of the passage is to guard the Jews against idolatry. They were, and would continue to be, surrounded by idolatrous nations, who would strive to the utmost to draw them from Jehovah to the worship of false gods. And the Jews themselves having from the earliest period of their existence as a people been accustomed to see the idolatrous worship of Egypt, were of themselves strongly attached to idolatry; so that it was necessary to guard them against it by the most awful menaces, and the most impressive cautions.

The caution here given is certainly most solemn. That we may give it all the force of which it is capable, we will notice distinctly these three things; The supposition here made; The injunction given notwithstanding that supposition; and The argument founded on that injunction.

First, mark the supposition here made, namely, that God may permit miraculous and prophetic powers to be exercised even in support of a false religion. We are not indeed to imagine that God himself will work miracles in order to deceive his people, and lead them astray; nor are we to imagine that he will suffer Satan to work them in such an unlimited way as to be a counterbalance to the miracles by which God has confirmed his own religion: but he will, for reasons which we shall presently consider, permit some to be wrought, and some prophecies to come to pass, notwithstanding they are designed to uphold an imposture. The magicians of Pharaoh, we must confess, wrought real miracles. When they changed their rods into serpents, it was not a deception, but a reality: and when they inflicted plagues upon Egypt after the example of Moses, it was not a deception, but a reality: but at the same time that they thus, in appearance, vied with Moses himself, and with Jehovah,

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in whose name he came, there was abundant evidence of their inferiority to Moses, and of their being under the control of a superior power: for the magicians could not remove one of the plagues which they themselves had produced; nor could they continue to imitate Moses in all the exercises of his power (from whence they themselves were led to confess their own inferiority to him): nor could they avert from themselves the plagues which Moses inflicted on them in common with the rest of the Egyptians. They were permitted to do so much as should give Pharaoh an occasion for hardening his own heart, but not sufficient to shew that they could at all come in competition with Moses.

In every age there were also false prophets, who endeavoured to draw the people from their allegiance to God; and in the multitude of prophecies that they would utter, it must be naturally supposed that some would be verified in the event. Our blessed Lord has taught us to expect, even under the Christian dispensation, that some efforts of this kind will be made by “Antichrist, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish [Note: 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10.].” He has moreover told us that these false prophets should “shew such signs and wonders as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect [Note: Matthew 24:24.]:” nay more, that in the last day some will appeal to him respecting the prophecies they have uttered, and the miracles they have wrought in his name, and will plead them in arrest of judgment [Note: Matthew 7:22.]. We may therefore safely concede what is here supposed, namely, that God may suffer miraculous and prophetic powers to be exercised to a certain degree even in support of idolatry itself.

Now then, in the next place, let us notice the injunction given to the Jews notwithstanding this supposition. God commands them “not to give heed to that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, even though his predictions should be verified, if his object be to turn them from him; for that he himself suffers these illusions to be practised upon them, in order that their fidelity to him may be tried, and their love to him approved.”

It may seem strange that God should suffer such stumbling-blocks to be cast in the way of his people: but it is not for us to say what Jehovah may, or may not, do: we are sure that “he tempteth no man,” so as to lead him into sin [Note: James 1:13.], and that the “Judge of all the earth will do nothing but what is right.” But it is a fact, that he thus permitted Job to be tried, in order that he might approve himself a perfect man: and in like manner he tried Abraham, in order that it might appear, whether his regard for God’s authority, and his confidence in God’s word, were sufficient to induce him to sacrifice his Isaac, the child of promise [Note: Genesis 22:1-2; Genesis 22:12.]. It was for similar ends that God permitted his people to be tried for forty years in the wilderness [Note: Deuteronomy 8:2.]; and in the same way he has tried his Church in every period of the world. This is the true reason of so many stumbling-blocks being laid in the way of those who embrace the Christian faith. Christianity is not revealed in a way to meet with the approbation of proud and carnal men: it is foolishness to the natural man: yea, even Christ himself is a stumbling-block to some, as well as a sanctuary to others; and such a stumbling-block, as to be “a gin and a snare to both the houses of Israel,” amongst whom it was foretold, “many should stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken [Note: Isaiah 8:14-15.].” It is God’s express design in the whole constitution of our religion, to discover the secret bent of men’s minds: and whilst to the humble he has

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given abundant evidence for their conviction, he has left to the proud sufficient difficulties to call forth their latent animosity, and to justify in their own apprehensions, their obstinate unbelief [Note: Luke 2:34-35.]. He gave originally to the Jews, as he has also given to us, sufficient evidence to satisfy any candid mind: and this is all that we have any right to expect. It was not necessary that our Lord should give to every man in the Jewish nation the same evidence of his resurrection, as he gave to Thomas: it was reasonable that there should be scope left for every man to exercise his own judgment on the evidences that were placed within his reach; as our Lord said to Thomas, “Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed; but blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.”

Hence then God enjoined his people not to regard any person who should attempt to draw them to idolatry, even though he should work a miracle before their eyes, or foretell an event that should afterwards come to pass. They had had abundant evidence, that the religion they had embraced was from God: they possessed also in the very nature of that religion an internal evidence of its excellency: and they had received from God such demonstrations of his power and goodness, as ought to unite them to him in the most indissoluble bonds of faith and love. If therefore they should be induced to renounce their allegiance to him, and to transfer it to dumb idols that had never done any thing for them, nor ever could do any thing, they would betray a manifest want of love to him, and must blame themselves only, if they should ultimately be “given up to a delusion to believe a lie, and be left to perish” in their iniquity [Note: 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12.]. He would have them therefore upon their guard in relation to this matter, and resolutely to resist every attempt to draw them from him, however specious that attempt might be.

The argument founded on this injunction comes now before us with all the force that can be given to it. A Jew will say, ‘You Christians found your faith on prophecies and on miracles: and admitting that Jesus did work some miracles, and did foretell some events which afterwards came to pass, God permitted it only to try us, and to prove our fidelity to him. He has cautioned us beforehand not to be led astray from him by any such things as these: he has expressly forbidden us to regard any thing that such a prophet might either say or do: nay more, he commanded that we should take such a prophet before the civil magistrate, and have him put to death: and therefore, however specious your reasonings appear, we dare not listen to them or regard them.

II. Having thus given to the objection all the force that the most hostile Jew can wish, I now come in the second place to offer, what we hope will prove a satisfactory answer to it.

It cannot but have struck the attentive reader, that in this objection there are two things taken for granted; namely, that in calling Jews to Christianity we are calling them from Jehovah; and that our authority for calling them to Christianity is founded on such miracles as an impostor might work, and such prophecies as an impostor might expect to see verified.

But in answer to these two points we declare, first, that we do not call them from Jehovah, but to him;—next, that our authority is not founded on such miracles and prophecies as might have issued from an impostor, but such as it was impossible for

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an impostor to produce;—and lastly, that, in calling them to Christ, we have the express command of God himself.

First, we do not call our Jewish brethren from Jehovah, but to him.

We worship the very same God whom the Jews worship: and we maintain his unity as strongly as any Jew in the universe can maintain it. As for idols of every kind, we abhor them as much as Moses himself abhorred them. Moreover, we consider the law which was written on the two tables of stone as binding upon us, precisely as much as if it were again promulged by an audible voice from heaven. Instead of calling them from the law, we call them to it: we declare that every man who has transgressed it in any one particular, is deservedly condemned to everlasting misery [Note: Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10.]: and it is from a consciousness that this sentence must fall on every human being who has not fled for refuge to the hope set before him in the Gospel, that we are so anxious to call both Jews and Gentiles to a belief of the Gospel. We go further, and say, that no human being can be saved, who has not a perfect obedience to that law as his justifying righteousness. But where shall we find a perfect obedience to that law? where shall we find a man who can say, he has fulfilled it in every jot and tittle? Alas! we all have transgressed it times without number: we are all therefore condemned by it: and being condemned for our disobedience, we can never be justified by our obedience to it. Would to God, that this matter were understood by the Jews! we should find no difficulty then in leading them to Christ. Did they but know what wrath they have merited, they would be glad to hear of one who has borne it for them: and did they but know how impossible it is for an imperfect obedience to that law to justify them, they would be glad to hear of one who has fulfilled it in all its extent, and brought in an everlasting righteousness for all who believe in him. Yes, my Jewish brethren, know assuredly that the Christian “does not make void the law, but establishes the law [Note: Romans 3:31.]:” and has no hope of salvation in anyway, but such as “magnifies the law and makes it honourable [Note: Isaiah 42:21.];” and it is his earnest desire that you should agree with him in this matter; because he is sure, that, when once you come to understand your own law, and see how “Christ was the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,” your difficulties will all vanish as the morning dew before the rising sun.

With respect to the ceremonial law, we do indeed call you from the observance of that; and we have good reason so to do; for you yourselves know, that all the essential part of your religion existed before the ceremonial law was given; and that Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, who lived hundreds of years before the ceremonial law was given, were saved simply and entirely by faith in that promised “Seed, in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed.” By faith then in this promised Seed must you be saved: every child of Abraham must seek for acceptance in the way that Abraham did. If you ask, Why then was the ceremonial law given? I answer, To shadow forth your Messiah, and to lead you to him: and when he should come and fulfil it in all its parts, it was then to cease; and you yourselves know that it was intended by God himself to cease at that appointed time. Do you not know that your Messiah was to come out of the loins of David; and that he was also to be a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec? But if there was to be a new priesthood after the order of Melchizedec, the priesthood of Aaron must cease: and if the new priest was to spring from David, who was of the tribe of Judah, and not from Levi to whose descendants the priesthood was confined, then it is clear from this also that the Aaronic

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priesthood must cease: and if that be changed, then must there of necessity be a change of the law also [Note: Hebrews 7:11-12.]: so that you yourselves know that the ceremonial law was never intended to continue any longer than the time fixed for its completion in the predicted Messiah. If then we call you from the outward observances of that law, it is not from disrespect to that law, but from a conviction that it has been fulfilled and abrogated by the Lord Jesus. We call you only from shadows to the substance. We call you to Christ as uniting in himself all that the ceremonial law was intended to shadow forth. He is the true tabernacle, in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He is the true “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” even that “Lamb of God which, as John the Baptist testified, taketh away the sins of the world.” He is the great High-Priest, who, having “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God,” is now “entered into the holy place with his own blood,” and there “ever liveth to make intercession for us;” and is to come forth from thence once more to bless in his Father’s name his waiting people. I wish then, my Jewish brethren, that you would particularly bear this in mind. We honour the ceremonial law as admirably calculated to prepare your minds for the Gospel: not only because it exhibited so fully and so minutely every part of the mediatorial office which our Lord was to sustain, but because by the burthensomeness of its rites it tended to break your spirit, and to make you sigh for deliverance. And methinks, it should be no grievance to you to be called from those observances, because you neither do, nor can, continue them: the destruction of your city and temple, and your whole ecclesiastical and civil polity, have rendered impossible for you to comply with them, and have thus shut you up to the faith of Abraham, which is the faith of the Gospel.

I am aware that in calling you to worship the Lord Jesus Christ we appear to you to be transferring to him the honour due to God alone. But if you will look into your own Scriptures, you will find than the person who was foretold as your Messiah is no other than God himself. Examine the Psalm before referred to [Note: Psalms 110.], and see how David speaks of your Messiah: “The Lord said unto my LORD, Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool.” David here calls him Jehovah: and how could he do that, if that title did not properly belong to him? This question Jesus put to the Pharisees in his day; and they could not answer him a word: nor can all the Rabbis upon the face of the earth suggest any satisfactory answer to it now. The only answer that can be given is, that the same person, who as man, was David’s son, as Jehovah, was David’s Lord, or, as Isaiah calls him, “Emmanuel, God with us.” Receive him in the character in which the Prophet Isaiah foretold his advent, as “the Child born, the Son given, the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace.” Call him, as another prophet instructs you, “Jehovah our righteousness:” and know, that, in thus “honouring Christ, you will honour the Father who sent him.”

This then is my first answer; that in no respect whatever do we call you from God, but wholly and altogether to him; to Him, as the One true God, in opposition to all idols; to his law, as fulfilled in Christ, and directing you to him; and to his Gospel, as the completion and consummation of all the wonders of his love. In as far as we call you from your present course, it is only from types and shadows to the substance and reality. You remember that at the moment of our Lord’s death the veil of the temple was rent in twain, and the most holy place was laid open to the view of all who were worshipping before it. The way into the holiest being thus opened to you all by God himself, we invite all to enter in with boldness, and assure you in God’s name that

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you shall find acceptance with him.

The next thing which we proposed to shew was, that our authority for calling you thus to Christ is not founded on such prophecies or miracles as might have issued from an impostor, but on such as it was impossible for an impostor to produce.

Consider the prophecies: they were not some few dark predictions of mysterious import and of doubtful issue, uttered by our Lord himself; but a continued series of prophecies from the very fall of Adam to the time of Christ; of prophecies comprehending an almost infinite variety of subjects, and those so minute, as to defy all concert either in those who uttered, or those who fulfilled, them. A great multitude of them were of such a kind that they could not possibly be fulfilled by any but the most inveterate enemies. Who but an enemy would have nailed him to the cross, or pierced him to the heart with a spear, or offered him gall and vinegar to drink, or mocked and insulted him in the midst of all his agonies? Do not these put his Messiahship beyond a doubt? I will mention only one prophecy of Christ himself: but it is such an one as no impostor would utter, and no impostor could fulfil. What impostor would rest all the credit of his mission on his being put to a cruel, ignominious, and accursed death, and rising from the dead the third day? Or if an impostor were foolish enough to utter such a prophecy, how, when he was actually dead, could he fulfil it? But the whole Scriptures predicted these things of Jesus, as Jesus also did of himself: and the exact fulfilment of them proves beyond all reasonable doubt his true Messiahship.

Consider the miracles also: these were beyond all comparison greater and more numerous than Moses ever wrought. The healing all manner of diseases was the daily and hourly employment of the Lord Jesus for the three or four last years of his life. The whole creation, men, devils, fishes, elements, all obeyed his voice; and at his command the dead arose to life again. But there is one miracle also which in particular we will mention. Jesus said, “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again:” and the former of these he proved by speaking with a loud voice the very instant he gave up the ghost, shewing thereby, that he did not die in consequence of his nature being exhausted, but by a voluntary surrender of his life into his Father’s hands. And at the appointed time he proved the latter also, notwithstanding all the preparations made to defeat his purpose, all of which proved in the issue the strongest testimonies to the truth of his word. But would an impostor have pretended to such a power; or when actually dead, could he have exercised it? And, when the interval between his death and resurrection was to be so short, would not the stone, the seal, the watch, have been sufficient to secure the detection of the imposture? Further, would an impostor have undertaken to send down the Holy Ghost after his death for the purpose of enabling his followers to speak all manner of languages, and of working all kinds of miracles; or if he had predicted such things, could he have fulfilled them? Judge then whether here be not ground enough for that faith which we call you to exercise towards him? If there be not, how do you prove the divine authority of your own lawgiver? In point of testimony, great as was that which proved the divine mission of Moses, it was nothing when compared with that which substantiated the Messiahship of Jesus. We therefore confidently call you to believe in him, and to embrace the salvation which he offers you in the Gospel.

But there is one great argument which we have reserved till now, in order that it may

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bear upon you with the greater weight. We declare to you then, in the last place, that, in calling you to Christ, we have the express command of God himself.

Moses, in chapter 13 of Deuteronomy, bids you, as we have seen, not to listen to any false prophet: but in chapter 18:18, 19, he most explicitly declares, that a Prophet should arise, to whom you should attend. Hear his own words: “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.”

Now I ask you, Who is the Prophet here spoken of? Where was there ever, besides Moses, a prophet that was a Mediator, a Lawgiver, a Ruler, a Deliverer? Was there ever such an one, except Jesus? And was not Jesus such an one in all respects? Yes; he has wrought for you not a mere temporal deliverance like Moses, but a spiritual and eternal deliverance from sin and Satan, death and hell: He has redeemed you, not by power only, but by price also, even the inestimable price of his own blood. Having thus bought you with his blood, he ever liveth in heaven itself to make continual intercession for you. A new law also has he given you, “the law of faith,” in conformity to which he enjoins you to walk, and by which he will judge you in the last day. Of this blessed person all your own prophets have spoken; and this very Moses, in whom you trust, declares to you, that, “if you will not hear and obey this Prophet, God will require it of you.” When therefore you plead the authority of Moses, we join issue with you, and say, Be consistent. Renounce false prophets, because he bids you: but believe in the true Prophet, whom God according to his word has raised up to you, because he bids you. Let his authority weigh equally with you in both cases: and then we shall not fear, but that you will embrace the salvation offered you in the Gospel, and be the spiritual children, as ye already are the natural descendants, of believing Abraham. “Abraham looked forward with eager expectation to see the day of Christ, and saw it, and was glad.” May ye also now see it, and rejoice in him as your Saviour for evermore!

It is for your partiality in this respect that God has punished you now these eighteen hundred years, and is punishing you at this day. He told you, “he would require of you” your rejection of this Prophet; and he has required it more severely, than he has all your other sins ever since you became a nation. O repent of this evil, and turn to God in his appointed way! so shall his wrath be turned away from you, and “you shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.”

We cannot conclude our subject without suggesting a suitable improvement of it to our Christian brethren—

As the Jews were constantly assailed by idolaters who sought to draw them from the worship of the true God, so are you by infidels, or worldlings, to draw you from the belief or practice of the Gospel. But do infidels assault you? Ask them whether their objections, all of which arise from ignorance alone, are sufficient to invalidate all the evidences which may be adduced in support of our religion? If not, then “hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering.” Do worldlings tell you that God does not require you to renounce the world, and to give yourselves up entirely to him? Ask

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them, what proof they can give, that God has authorized them to set aside the plainest declarations of his word. You may expect at least that they shall be possessed of miraculous and prophetic powers, or else they have not so much as the semblance of true prophets. But even if they had these powers and displayed them evidently before your eyes, yet ought you not to regard their counsels, because they seek to turn you from God to a poor perishing and worthless idol; from God, who has redeemed you by the blood of his only dear Son, and given you all things in and with him, to an idol, that never has done any thing for you, nor ever can. Be firm therefore, even though your father or your mother, your brother or your sister, or even the wife of your own bosom, should seek to turn you from the Lord. Your plain answer to them all is, “Whether it be right to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.” Whatever temptations they offer, or menaces they employ, let nothing induce you to draw back from following the Lord fully. “Be faithful unto death; and he will give you a crown of life.”

PULPIT, "IDOLATERS AND ENTICERS TO IDOLATRY TO BE PUT TO DEATH.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5

The case supposed here is that of one professing to have supernatural intelligence, who should, by giving a sign or a wonder, endeavor to draw away the people to idolatry. Such a one was to be put to death.

Deuteronomy 13:1

A prophet (nabhi, נביא ); one who speaks from God, an interpreter to men of what God reveals or suggests to him (of. for the meaning of the word, Exodus 7:1 with Exodus 4:16; also Jeremiah 15:19). Dreamer of dreams. Not by visions or immediate suggestion only, but also by means of dreams, did God communicate with men (cf. Numbers 12:6). The case supposed here, then, is that of one pretending to have had revelations from God through those media by which God was pleased to convey his will to men (cf. Hem; 'Iliad,' h 62—

" αPλλ αPγε δή τινα μάντιν εPρείομεν ….

ηP και οPνειροπόλον και γάρ τP οPναρ εPκ διός εPστιν)"

Sign or a wonder. A sign was some event foretold by the prophet, and the occurrence of which was a token that something else which he announced would happen or should be done. A wonder was a miracle, the performance of which gave proof of a Divine commission (cf. Deuteronomy 4:24). These signs, it is assumed, should come to pass; nevertheless, the people were not to listen to the man who gave them to go after other gods. The mere fact that he sought to persuade them to forsake the worship of Jehovah was sufficient to prove him an impostor; for how could one who sought to seduce the people from God be sent by God? The sign which was given to authenticate such a message could only be one of those "lying signs and wonders

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after the working of Satan," by which his emissaries try to deceive and mislead; and was permitted by God only that their fidelity to him might be tested and proved. They had already received God's message; they had his word; and no teaching which contravened that, however apparently authenticated, could be from him, or was to he accepted by them (cf. Jeremiah 29:8; Galatians 1:8, Galatians 1:9; 1 John 3:1, etc.). Come what might, they were to walk after Jehovah their God, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and serve him; and cleave unto him. The false prophet, as a public enemy and a suborner of treason against the King of Israel, was to be put to death; and so the evil would be put away from among them.

PULPIT, "HOMILIES BY J. ORR

Deuteronomy 13:1-6

False prophets.

In viewing the bearings of this passage on the credentials of revelation, two points should be observed.

1. The case supposed is one in which the prophet contradicts a revelation already received.

2. The prophet does not dispute the evidence of that earlier revelation. On the contrary, he admits it. He stands within the lines of it. He professes to speak under its authority. Yet he asks the people to violate its fundamental laws. This of itself was sufficient to convict him. His pretensions are disposed of by the simple fact that, professing to speak in the Name of God, he gives the people a message contradictory of what he admits God to have previously revealed. No sign and wonder can accredit contradictions. The prophet is inconsistent with himself, and is not to be listened to. Nay, his message had been anticipated, and the thing he bids the people do, expressly forbidden. Notice, then—

I. EXTERNAL MIRACLES DO NOT OF THEMSELVES ACCREDIT A REVELATION AS FROM GOD. (Deuteronomy 13:1-3.) This prophet gives a sign or wonder—presumably a predictive word—and it actually comes to pass. The failure of his sign, according to Deuteronomy 18:21, Deuteronomy 18:22, would have been a proof of falsity. The converse of this, however, that he speaks God's word because his sign has not failed, is not immediately to be admitted. There are other tests to be applied. In this case, the prophet's message is condemned because contradictory of what he himself allows to have been a true revelation. This raises the question of the value of miracles as credentials of revelation. That they have a value is not disputed, but not as mere signs and wonders. This will be best seen by contrasting the sign or wonder given by this prophet with the evidence of the earlier revelation. If we take the Scripture account of the founding of the Mosaic dispensation, it is impossible to question the magnificence and convincingness of the displays of Divine power and holiness therein contained. In founding his dispensations (Mosaic and Christian), God has not only given evidence, but an amount and kind of evidence which put the source of the revelation—admitting the facts to be as stated—beyond all cavil. For here, it is not merely the fact of miracle which is to be regarded, but the number, nature, magnitude, variety, spiritual quality of the supernatural events, in connection

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with the self-evidencing divineness of the revelation itself. The difficulty as to whether the miracle proves the doctrine, or the doctrine the miracle, or in what proportions the two factors combine, has little place in the actual evidences of revelation. The two cannot be separated, either in thought or in fact. Grant the authenticity of the miracles of the Gospels or of the Pentateuch, and it will not be disputed that they originated with God, not with Beelzebub. To this mass of evidence, overwhelming in its sublimity and convincingness—evidence- embracing the wonders of Egypt, the displays of God's power, love, and grace in the events of the Exodus, the miracles of the desert, the stupendous revelations of Sinai, etc.—the prophet opposes a few stray signs and wonders. Which were the people to believe? Plainly, no sign or wonder would have justified an Israelite in believing a prophet whose teaching contradicted the first principles of his revelation; as no sign or wonder would justify us in believing teachings contradictory of the first principles of ours.

II. THE RISE OF FALSE PROPHETS IS TO BE ANTICIPATED. (Deuteronomy 18:1.) The passage takes it for granted that they will arise. They did arise in Old Testament times, and they will do so again. Their appearance is predicted in connection with "the last days" (Matthew 24:11; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Peter 2:1). "Signs and wonders" will not be wanting (Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 2 Thessalonians 2:10). False teachers are included under the category of false prophets (Matthew 7:15; 2 Peter 2:1). They assert as the truth of God principles and doctrines subversive of the revelation God has given. The readiness of people to believe them arises from want of knowledge (Ephesians 4:14); from the itch for novelties (2 Timothy 4:3); from a diseased craving for the marvelous—witness the credulity displayed in connection with spiritualism (2 Thessalonians 2:9-13); above all, from the adaptation of their teachings to the inclinations of depraved hearts (2 Timothy 3:1-8).

III. THE RISE OF FALSE PROPHETS IS PERMITTED FOR THE SIFTING OF THE CHURCH. (Deuteronomy 18:3.) God has thus much to do with their appearance that he permits it as a means of proving and sifting the Church. The trial is a searching and real one. The plausibility of their errors may occasion, even to believers, much mental conflict, But out of this conflict they come forth strengthened and purified, with firmer hold upon the truth, and clearer insight into Scripture. Those willing to be deceived are, on the other hand, led by the spirit of delusion. False prophets shake all but "the very elect" (Matthew 24:24). The heresies, schisms, controversies, etc; which have agitated the Church, with the teachings of antichristian philosophy and science outside of it, have always had this effect of sifting, while in the end they have subserved the progress of the truth.

IV. THE TEACHING OF FALSE PROPHETS IS TO BE REJECTED.

1. Their doctrine is to be tried by its conformity with the rule of faith (Isaiah 8:20). John bids us "try the spirits," giving as the reason that "many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).

2. Their doctrine, if found contradictory of Scripture, is to be unhesitatingly rejected.

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3. Of old, the prophet whose teachings struck at the foundations of the theocracy was to be put to death (verse 5). This rule no longer applies. But it is the duty of the Church, in the exercise of her judicial functions, to deprive such a teacher of office and status in her ministry (see also 2 John 1:10, 2 John 1:11.—J.O.

TODAY IN THE WORD

Coins in the United States have the phrase “In God We Trust” stamped upon them. But to which God does this refer? It is true that many who framed the Constitution shared common values shaped by their Judeo-Christian heritage, but the American religious scene is now far more pluralistic than it was when the United States was founded. While many still acknowledge Jesus Christ as God’s Son and believe that the Bible is the Word of God, Christians must compete in the marketplace of ideas along with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and countless other religious views. The United States is one of the most religiously diverse countries on earth.

This tradition of religious pluralism offers at least one advantage. It has allowed the church to worship and proclaim the gospel in freedom. But it also poses a danger. Because we live in a culture that celebrates religious diversity, we face the temptation of becoming religious pluralists ourselves. With so many views existing side by side, how do we protect ourselves from embracing false views of God?

The children of Israel were confronted with a similar problem. Moses warned that once they settled in the land God had promised to give them, their faith would be constantly challenged by the pagan beliefs of the surrounding nations. False prophets would come claiming to have special insights directly from God and demonstrating the ability to perform miraculous signs. Friends and relatives could be deceived by their teaching and might tempt others to adopt the same views. Entire towns might be drawn into false worship.

TODAY ALONG THE WAY

In order to “guard the good deposit” of truth that has been entrusted to us, we must first know the truth. Obtain a copy of your church’s doctrinal statement from your pastor or a church leader and study it. What does it tell you about the truths your church believes are essential to the Christian faith? What does it say about Jesus Christ and His work? The Moody Publishers catalog has many books about Christian doctrine, such as Basic Theology by Charles Ryrie and Foundational Faith edited by John Koessler.

2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes

place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other

gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us

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worship them,”

BARNES, "The Lord had said, “Thou shalt have none other gods but Me.” A prophet is here supposed who invites the people “to go after other gods.” To such a one no credit is under any circumstances to be given, even should he show signs and wonders to authenticate his doctrine. The standing rule of faith and practice had been laid down once for all - that the people were to hold fast. The prophet who propounded another rule could only be an impostor.

A different case is considered in Deu_18:18, etc.

GILL, "And the sign and wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee,.... The sign he promised to give, or the miracle he proposed to do, to show the reality of his mission, and the truth of his doctrine, which is performed, or seemingly performed, by legerdemain, by magic art, or by the help of the devil; which the Lord sometimes suffered for the trial of the faith and obedience of his people, and for the hardening of others in their unbelief, and which issues in their destruction; see 2Th_2:9,

saying, let us go after other gods (which thou hast not known), and let us serve them; other gods besides the one living and true God, the Creator of all things; strange gods, the idols of the people, as the Targum of Jonathan; such as they had never heard of, nor had any knowledge of, nor any benefit from, as they had of the Lord their God. Now the doctrines of these, and of their worship, are what the false prophet or dreamer is supposed to come with, and inculcate into the minds of the people; and for the confirmation of which, and in order to draw them into the reception of them, and act according to them, he proposed to give a sign or wonder.

PETT, "Deuteronomy 12:32 to Deuteronomy 13:2

‘Whatever thing I command you (ye), that you (ye) shall observe to do. You

(thou) shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it. If there arise in the midst of

you (thee) a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give you (thee) a sign or a

wonder, and the sign or the wonder come about, of which he spoke to you,

saying, “Let us go after other gods, which you (thou) have not known, and let us

serve them,” ’

We have repeated Deuteronomy 12:32 here so as to bring out the dual connection

back and forwards. As a group they must observe his commands, and none of

them individually shall add to his words or diminish them, neither shall the

nation as a whole. ‘In the midst of you (thee)’ must refer to the nation as such,

but the remainder of the verse might be seen as more having individuals in mind.

The danger warned against here is that people might come with impressive ‘signs

and wonders’ and pose as prophets, or dreamers of significant dreams which

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they claimed, and even believed, to come from a divine source. They might point

to signs and wonders that were coming, or that they performed (compare

Matthew 24:24). These might for example include eclipses, or interpretations of

weather conditions, or some manufactured situation brought about by conjuring

or ‘magic’ (compare Exodus 7:11; Exodus 7:22; Exodus 8:7; Exodus 8:18). They

may arise through bold claims which are fulfilled by some coincidence, or from

some cleverly manufactured situation, or from some unknown phenomenon

which could be explained given all the facts. Or it may be by means of ‘spiritual

healings’ which were really psychosomatic (the result of the effect of the mind on

the body. The body can be strongly affected by the mind). When Jesus came men

sought similar signs and wonders from Him. But He refused to give them

(Matthew 12:38-39; Matthew 16:1-4). He warned severely against looking at

signs and wonders, (even though they emanated from Him everywhere because

of Who He was). He never tried to use them as ‘proofs’, although to the believing

John He pointed to them as demonstrating that He was the One sent from God as

promised in the Old Testament (Luke 7:22). John was not looking for proof but

for reassurance. But the real test of prophets is simple. Do such people speak

according to God’s word? (Deuteronomy 12:32; see Isaiah 8:20). Signs and

wonders are no proof of truth.

This is very different from the situation in Deuteronomy 18:21-22. There the test

is as to whether the prophet’s central message comes about. It is not there

referring to signs and wonders which are used to support the message as here.

With regard to dreams, there have been a few times when God has through

history spoken through dreams given to certain chosen men, especially when the

dream has left behind a sense of foreboding. But that is far from saying that

dreams generally are revelations from God, although in those days they were

often deemed to be. Such God-given dreams are few and far between, given in

relation to special people and situations (Genesis 20:3; Genesis 31:11; Numbers

12:6; Joel 2:28). Numbers 12:6 tells us that to lesser prophets God does

sometimes reveal things through dreams, but does not see it as a reliable method

of obtaining full truth. There God contrasts those who come with such dreams

who speak in ‘dark speeches’ (in that case Aaron and Miriam) with the one who

came with the direct word of God (Moses). The dreams must be tested out and

must not be given too much emphasis.

Most dreams result from what has been eaten the day before, or arise from

strongly desiring something which cannot be obtained in practise, or through

some vivid event that has affected the inner mind, or from working too hard

(Ecclesiastes 5:3), or simply result from a vivid imagination (Ecclesiastes 5:7). It

would sometimes be nice if we could go to bed and dream away our problems

and difficulties and obtain answers to them. But life is not like that. Many have

been led astray by following dreams. We should beware of laying too much

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emphasis on them and reject them utterly if they go contrary to, or seek to

expand on, the word of God.

The religious ‘importance’ of dreams would be well known from Egypt where

many manuals were written on the interpretation of dreams, and it had become a

‘science’, although not a reliable one. It is therefore interesting that outside

Genesis (pre-Mosaic) and Daniel (post-exilic, and the latter in a foreign country

where dreams were given credence) little credence is laid on dreams in the Old

Testament. And even in Genesis, apart from outsiders (this being God’s purpose

in giving them), dreams appear only to come to immature young men starting

out in life (Genesis 28:12; Genesis 37:5; Genesis 37:9), not for prophetic purposes

but for personal reasons. We can discount Deuteronomy 31:10-11 for that was

for Laban’s consumption. Outside Genesis and Daniel there are occasional

references to dreams (1 Samuel 28:6; Jeremiah 23:25-32; Jeremiah 27:9;

Jeremiah 29:8; Zechariah 10:2) all of which are derogatory. Only Numbers 12:6;

1 Kings 3:5; 1 Kings 3:15; Joel 2:28 are positive references, and even then the

dreamer is at a lower level than Yahweh’s prophets except possibly in the case of

Joel 2:28, but that is referring to a unique time (and interestingly also refers to

young men). Thus on the whole the Bible does not encourage the use of dreams

as a means of discovering truth, although occasionally allowing it. Genuine

dreams, like genuine miracles, appear to have come in rare bursts. If someone

comes to us with a dream we should perhaps suggest that they have heard

‘unspeakable things which it is not lawful for a man to utter’,

In this case these wonderworkers and dreamers would seek to lead people off to

giving credence to strange gods with a view to worshipping and serving them,

which makes quite clear that they could not be trusted. For God’s word on this

matter was particularly clear. ‘No other gods’. Thus they must be rejected and

dealt with severely.

“Which you have not known.” This has a dual aspect to it. Firstly it may indicate

an attempt to arouse interest by introducing something new. They were, said

their proponents, unknown, powerful gods (compare Acts 17:21. While these

were not Greek intellectuals many people who are not intellectuals also cannot

resist novelty). But secondly Moses is pointing out that they had no practical

experience of such gods. They have not ‘known’ them by experiencing what they

can do. How foolish then it would be to trust in them and follow them. On the

other hand they did know through experience what Yahweh could do, for He

had already done it. They knew precisely how powerful He was. Let them

therefore look only to Him. To turn from the One Whom they knew through

long experience, to supposed gods whose credentials were totally unknown,

would be totally inexcusable. This point is made by Moses again and again

(Deuteronomy 12:6; Deuteronomy 12:13; Deuteronomy 11:28; Deuteronomy

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28:64; Deuteronomy 29:26)

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 13:2-3. And the sign or wonder come to pass — God

permitting Satan or his agents to do what is above the ordinary course of nature

for thy trial. Saying, Let us go after other gods — That is, who, upon the sign’s

coming to pass which he gave thee to confirm his doctrine, would persuade thee

to go after other gods. Thou shalt not hearken unto that prophet — Shalt not

receive his doctrine; but, though the event confirm the prediction, thou shalt look

upon him as a liar, and teacher of false doctrine. For the Lord your God proveth

you — That is, trieth your faith, love, and obedience, and examineth your

sincerity by your constancy in his service, in opposition to all temptations to

desert it. To know — Or make known publicly and openly, namely, that both

you and others may know and see it, in order that the justice of his dispensations

toward you, whether in judgment or mercy, may be evident and glorious. The

reasonableness of what Moses here enjoins is manifest. For the existence and

infinite perfections of the one living and true God, the truth and goodness of his

religion, and the authority of his laws being already so fully demonstrated by

evidences of all kinds, evidences continued, and beyond all exception; and, on the

contrary, the gods of the heathen being so evidently either nonentities or false

pretenders to divinity, and their worship so full of absurdity, folly, and the worst

kinds of wickedness, it was not to be thought that a mere miracle, or a number of

miracles or wonders, for the performance of which, if really performed, they

could not account, or the fulfilling of a prediction, by any opposer of the true

God, was a sufficient reason why they should abandon God’s worship, call in

question the truth of his religion, or go after any other god. Moses properly

teaches them that the true divinity of miracles and wonders ought to be judged of

by the doctrines, designs, and purposes, for the abetting and confirming whereof

they were wrought; that every pretender to miracles, who would seduce men to

false and irrational principles of religion, was to be looked upon as an impostor,

and notwithstanding all he could do or say, they were steadily to adhere to the

service of Him who had given them so many proofs that he, and he alone, was the

true God, and to his religion and worship, which had been so amply confirmed;

concluding that God, by permitting such impostors, intended only to try their

faith and sincerity. Compare 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 John 4:1-6. We may infer

from hence, that the attempts of the Roman Catholics to prove their peculiar

doctrines by miracles are vain; for they ought first to show them to be agreeable

to reason and religion, before they attempt to prove them by miracles. For so

long as they appear contrary to reason and Scripture, and repugnant to common

sense, it will never be in the power of miracles, how numerous and stupendous

soever, to establish the truth of them. Far less of their pretended miracles, which

are nothing else but mere tricks and impostures.

HAWKER, "Verse 2-3

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But is it not yet more strange, that the LORD should permit the prediction of

false teachers to come to pass? The answer is at hand. GOD hath given the

reason: It is to prove the believer. And what is the believers security but the

SPIRIT's work in the heart? if, my brother, you are taught of GOD the HOLY

GHOST who and what JESUS is, there will never be any danger of going after

other gods. That precious promise which GOD held forth for his glory in the last

days is then fulfilled in your experience, and you need not ask your neighbor to

teach you to know the LORD. Sweet and blessed testimony this of GOD the

HOLY GHOST, and abundantly needful now more than ever, in the present

period of the church. Jeremiah 31:31-34. Compared with Hebrews 8:8-11.

3 you must not listen to the words of that

prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is

testing you to find out whether you love him

with all your heart and with all your soul.

CLARKE, "The Lord your God proveth you - God permits such impostors to arise to try the faith of his followers, and to put their religious experience to the test; for he who experimentally knows God cannot be drawn away after idols. He who has no experimental knowledge of God, may believe any thing. Experience of the truths contained in the word of God can alone preserve any man from Deism, or a false religion. They who have not this are a prey to the pretended prophet, and to the dreamer of dreams.

GILL, "Thou shall not hearken to the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams,.... Even though he does give the sign, and work the wonder; for it might be reasonably concluded there must be fallacy in him, and that neither he nor his miraculous sign could come from God, who would never send a person to enable him to do signs and wonders, to persuade men to believe and act contrary to a former declaration of his mind and will; to break a plain law of his, as in Deu_5:7, this would be to contradict and deny himself; whatever therefore is contrary to a known law or established doctrine, either of law or Gospel, let it come from whom it will, or pretend to be confirmed by miracles, is not to be received; see Gal_1:8,

for the Lord your God proveth you, whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul; for should they be prevailed upon by such a prophet to hearken to his doctrine, and embrace it, and act according to it,

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it would be a plain case that they did not cordially love the Lord, since they could so easily, and by such pretences, be drawn aside from the true worship of him, and serve other gods; on the other hand, it would be a proof of their sincere affection for God, and of their close and strict attachment to him, that notwithstanding such specious pretences made, and such miracles wrought, yet abode by him and his worship, and could not be wrought upon to forsake him and follow other gods and serve them; see 1Co_11:19.

HENRY, "II. Here is a very necessary charge given in this case,

1. Not to yield to the temptation: “Thou shalt not hearken to the worlds of that prophet, Deu_13:3. Not only thou shalt not do the thing he tempts thee to, but thou shalt not so much as patiently hear the temptation, but reject it with the utmost disdain and detestation. Such a suggestion as this is not to be so much as parleyed with, but the ear must be stopped against it. Get thee behind me, Satan.” Some temptations are so grossly vile that they will not bear a debate, nor may we so much as give them the hearing. What follows (Deu_13:4), You shall walk after the Lord,may be looked upon, (1.) As prescribing a preservative from the temptation: “Keep close to your duty, and you keep out of harm's way. God never leaves us till we leave him.” Or, (2.) As furnishing us with an answer to the temptation; say, “It is written, Thou shalt walk after the Lord, and cleave unto him; and therefore what have I to do with idols?”

CALVIN, "3.For the Lord your God proveth you. (Latin, tentat vos.) Whenever

this word, which means to tempt, is applied to God, it is not used in a bad sense,

for “to take by guile,” or, “to lay snares of deceit to entrap the unwary,” but only

for “to prove or examine.” Now, God proves men’s hearts, not that He may learn

what was before unknown, but to lay open what was before concealed. The

expression, “to know,” therefore, refers to experimental knowledge only. The

explanation of Augustine is tame and involved, (300) “That He may know, i.e.,

that He may cause you to know.” But, since it is so very common for human

feelings to be attributed to God, where is the use of twisting words, which signify

no more than that God makes trial, so that what might have been otherwise

doubtful, should be actually displayed? Thus God tempted Abraham, when in an

important matter He made trial of his faith or obedience. (Genesis 22:1.) Nor is

what I have lately touched upon, and which we often read of, at all contradictory

to this, viz., that God uses the instrumentality of Satan and of wicked men, in

order to tempt men; because we must take into consideration the object to which

He directs these trials, whereby it will be manifest that His design is very

different from the malice and wiles of Satan. The reason here given is worthy of

remark, because it removes the difficulty by which weak minds might have been

easily disturbed. For nothing is less probable than that Satan should insult God

and involve heaven and hell in war, or that he should assume to himself with

impunity an attribute of God. Lest, then, such a discussion should trouble and

weary the good, or keep them in perplexity, Moses thus anticipates it, by

reminding them, that God does not meanwhile lie idle or asleep, having

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abandoned the care of His Church; (301) but that He designedly brings the truly

pious to the proof, in order to distinguish them from the hypocrites; and this

takes place, when they constantly persevere in the true faith against the assaults

of their temptations, and do not fall from their standing. The Apostle declares

the same thing also with regard to heresies, that they must needs arise in the

Church, “that they which are approved may be made manifest.” (1 Corinthians

11:19.) Wherefore we must not be impatient, nor murmur against God, if He

chooses that the firmness of our faith, which is more precious than silver or gold,

should be tried in the fiery furnace; but it behoves us humbly to acquiesce in His

justice and wisdom. If any should still object, that, since the weakness of

mankind is only too notorious, God deals with them somewhat unkindly, when

He subjects them to these dangerous temptations, an answer may be readily

given. I acknowledge indeed that, since our carnal sense is tender, this may seem

hard, and inconsistent with the fatherly kindness of God; for, surely, when a

miracle presents itself before our eyes, it is difficult not to submit to it. But, since

the temptation injures none but those whose impiety, which it lays bare, was

already convicted and condemned, whilst the sincere worshippers of God are

preserved free from injury, how unjust would it be to take away from God this

liberty of plucking the mask from treachery and deceit? Whosoever loves God

with a pure heart is armed with the invincible power of the Divine Spirit, that he

should not be ensnared by falsehoods; God thus rewards true and not fictitious

piety, so that whosoever are of a true heart, should be protected by his faithful

guardianship, and never feel the deadly wound. Meanwhile, why should He not

devote to just destruction those who wilfully desire to perish? Nor need we be

surprised at what He elsewhere declares, that it is He who deceives false

prophets, (302) that by them he may inflict just vengeance on the reprobate, who

eagerly go in search of their destructive deceits. Since, then, all the good are sure

to overcome, so that the wiles of Satan are to them nothing but the exercises of

their virtue; why should God be blamed, because the malice of Satan and of the

wicked prepares for them the grounds of their victory and triumph? Only let us

cleave to this axiom, that all, who heartily love and reverence God, will always be

sure and safe under the protection of God. It is true, I confess, that integrity of

heart is a peculiar gift of God and the fruit of His secret election; but, since their

own consciences reproach the reprobate with their contempt of God, their

hypocrisy, pride, or depravity, the blame of the iniquity that dwells in them is

unjustly laid upon God. This, then, is sufficient to refute all carnal and perverse

reasonings and blasphemies, viz., that whosoever are right in heart are guarded

by the aid of the Spirit from the poisonous influence of Satan, and that no one

perishes against his will. And thus we come to the conclusion, that all who,

having once seemed to embrace the doctrines of salvation, afterwards reject and

deny them, had never possessed anything more than the disguise of a false

profession, because, if they sincerely loved God, they would remain firm in heart

in the midst of all things tending to disturb them. It will indeed sometimes

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happen that the pious also will fall into errors, and will be seduced by the

wicked; but it will only be in some respects and for a time; so that they never fall

from the foundation, and presently recover themselves, (resipiscant.) And then, it

must also be observed, they pay the penalty of their negligence, or instability,

because they have not been sufficiently attentive to God’s Word, or have not

sufficiently devoted themselves to religious pursuits. Hence we further gather,

that whilst many turn away professedly from the doctrines of religion, on the

ground of their seeing so many contentions and disputes to distract them, it is a

mere vain excuse to cover their profane neglect or hatred of God. It is true that

there are great discrepancies of opinion, and very warm contentions; but

whosoever in a teachable and gentle spirit shall seek after truth, and shall give

himself over and submit himself as the disciple of God, he will never be without

the spirit of judgment and discretion. But, since some listen disdainfully, some

supremely despise it, some wish that God’s Word were altogether destroyed,

others think lightly of it, the saying of the Prophet holds good, “that that dieth,

let it die;” (Zechariah 11:9;) and what Paul after him declares, “But if any man

be ignorant, let him be ignorant.” (l Corinthians 14:38.) Since it has always been

the case that God’s truth was never hidden from anybody, except him whose

mind the God of this world has blinded. (2 Corinthians 4:4.) And this especially

takes place (303) when light has shone from heaven, which suffers none to go

astray but those who shut their eyes. The remedy, therefore, is immediately

subjoined, “Ye shall walk after the Lord your God;” as if Moses had said, it was

sufficient for their preservation, that they had God to guide them in the right

way, who had already prevented them by His gratuitous bounty. But, since

numbers respond not to God’s call, and regard Him not when He points out the

way to them, the words “and fear him” are added; because “the fear of God is

the beginning of wisdom.” (Psalms 111:10.) Finally, Moses again inculcates that,

if men are only resolved to obey God, they will be sufficiently taught by His voice

what they ought to do. By the word “cleave,” perseverance is denoted, and titus

he indirectly reproves the instability of those who forsake and forget God, and go

astray after empty imaginations.

PETT, "Deuteronomy 13:3

‘You (thou) shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of

dreams, for Yahweh your God proves you (ye), to know whether you (ye) love

Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.’

The point is now made that it is important not to listen to those who come with

anything that contradicts what God has said, and especially when what He has

said has been stated plainly, even though they come with signs and wonders and

extraordinary dreams. God does allow such things to happen as He did with

Balaam (although He does not deliberately act to bring them about) in order to

test whether we will follow His word closely. But those who love God with all

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their heart and soul will soon discern truth from falsehood. We are reminded

again that ‘love’ is the true covenant response. The Christian looks not to

outward signs, but to the witness within of the Spirit to His word (1 John 2:20; 1

John 2:27). Those who are true speak what is true (1 John 4:1-2), and those who

are true hear what is true. Some of these wonderworkers will be such that if it

were possible they would even deceive them, but thankfully that is not possible

(Matthew 24:24), for they look to His word (in this case the word of Moses) and

judge all by that.

Deuteronomy 13:3

F. B. Meyer

Our Daily Homily

HOW much happens to us for this reason! God proves us--not that He may learn

aught of us which He did not know before, but that He may reveal us to

ourselves. We need to know ourselves, that we may be prompted to know and use

His infinite resources, and that, in the great consciousness of our frailty and

weakness, we may be led to avail ourselves of His grace.

God proves us by opportunities of Christian service.--We think we are fitted for

some great sphere, and chafe because it is withheld: but the reason is not far to

seek. We have been tested in some very little service, as a class in the Sunday-

school, and have been found careless and unpunctual; is it likely that we shall be

entrusted with the greater?

God proves us by the money with which He entrusts us.--Money resembles the

counters with which children play. It greatly tests us. It is described as the

unrighteous mammon, and as not being our true riches; but it is entrusted to us

that we may be proved, before God entrusts us with the real treasures of His

Kingdom. Be wary how you use money; on this may turn the responsibilities of

the eternal world of which we now know nothing.

God proves us by our actions with regard to doubtful things.--Not in the things

which are clearly right or wrong, but in those which lie in the debatable ground

of the twilight, is our true character tested. What you are in matters which must

be viewed in relation to others is all-important, as the true gauge of character. By

currents of opinion, by winds of doctrine, and by the many voices that are

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speaking in the world, the Lord your God proveth you.

4 It is the Lord your God you must follow, and

him you must revere. Keep his commands and

obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.

GILL, "Ye shall walk after the Lord your God,.... As he has directed, according to the laws and rules which he has given, both with respect to their moral and civil conduct, and their religious worship of him; and so the Targum of Jonathan,"ye shall walk after the worship of the Lord your God:"

and fear him, and keep his commandments; fear to offend him, and so keep his commandments; or keep his commandments from or through fear; not a servile but a filial one, a reverential affection for him; this is the whole duty of man, Ecc_12:13,

and obey his voice; in his word, or by his prophets and ministers: it may very well be understood of the voice of Christ, the Angel that went before them, whose voice they were continually to hearken to and obey, Exo_23:21.

and you shall serve him, and cleave unto him; it may respect all religious worship, both private and public; the Targum of Jonathan restrains it to prayer, but it not only includes that, but all other acts of piety and devotion, and which are to be constantly performed and not departed from; for so to do is to cleave to the Lord as a man to his wife, or a woman to her husband, in which conjugal relation God and his people Israel were, he was an husband unto them, and to do otherwise is to go a whoring from him after other gods.

K&D, "God permitted false prophets to rise up with such wonders, to try the

Israelites, whether they loved Him, the Lord their God, with all their heart. (נ)ה as in

Gen_22:1.) אהבים whether ye are loving, i.e., faithfully maintain your love to ,הישכם

the Lord. It is evident from this, “that however great the importance attached to signs and wonders, they were not to be regarded among the Israelites, either as the highest test, or as absolutely decisive, but that there was a certainty in Israel, which was so much the more certain and firm than any proof from miracles could be, that it might be most decidedly opposed to it” (Baumgarten). This certainty, however, was not “the knowledge of Jehovah,” as B. supposes; but as Luther correctly observes, “the word of God, which had already been received, and confirmed by its own signs,” and which the Israelites were to preserve and hold fast, without adding or subtracting anything. “In opposition to such a word, no prophets were to be received, although

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they rained signs and wonders; not even an angel from heaven, as Paul says in Gal_1:8.” The command to hearken to the prophets whom the Lord would send at a future time (Deu_18:18.), is not at variance with this: for even their announcements were to be judged according to the standard of the fixed word of God that had been already given; and so far as they proclaimed anything new, the fact that what they announced did not occur was to be the criterion that they had not spoken in the name of the Lord, but in that of other gods (Deu_18:21-22), so that even there the signs and wonders of the prophets are not made the criteria of their divine mission.

PETT, "Deuteronomy 13:4

‘You (ye) shall walk after Yahweh your God, and fear him, and keep his

commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and cleave to him.’

Note here the contrast with Deuteronomy 13:5. ‘You’ (ye) on the one hand, and

‘that prophet’ on the other. This may be utilising, as an example, treaty

stipulations known to Moses from his past. This is how the believer can keep on

the true path, by wholehearted loyalty. By walking after Yahweh his God, by

fearing Him, by keeping His commandments, by obeying His voice, by serving

Him, by cleaving to Him (see Deuteronomy 5:33; Deuteronomy 8:6;

Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 11:22). They are to be like sheep who

diligently follow the shepherd. As Jesus said, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I

know them, and they follow Me, and I give to them eternal life, and they shall

never perish, and none shall pluck them from My hand’ (John 10:27-28). Such

will never be led astray by false teaching.

The summary is a good description of different aspects of the Christian life.

‘Walk after God.’ Our lives are to be a daily walk with Him as He walks with us

through the day. ‘Fear’ - we could do with a little more of the fear of God. ‘Keep

His commandments.’ We must observe them and do them. ‘Obey His voice.’ We

must ever be open to His prompting, and sensitive to what He requires, a

sensitivity acquired by reading His word and by worship. ‘Serve Him.’ This

includes both worship and doing His will. We must never forget that we are

servants. ‘Cleave to Him.’ This involves true responsive love and not allowing

anything else to come between us and God.

A preacher tells how a student once came to him and told him how he was losing

his faith because of liberal teaching. His response was simply to look back at him

and ask, ‘What have you been doing?’ He knew that the problem was not with

the liberal teaching, which could be coped with, it was with his failure to walk

after God and obey Him and cleave to Him. And the student bowed his head and

admitted that he was right. He had lost touch with God and was craving after the

world. That was his real problem. The other was simply an excuse.

MACLAREN, "WITH, BEFORE, AFTER

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‘Enoch walked with God,’ Gen_5:22.

‘Walk before Me.’ Gen_17:1.

‘Ye shall walk after the Lord your God.’ Deu_13:4.

You will have anticipated, I suppose, my purpose in doing what I very seldom do-cutting little snippets out of different verses and putting them together. You see that these three fragments, in their resemblances and in their differences, are equally significant and instructive. They concur in regarding life as a walk-a metaphor which expresses continuity, so that every man’s life is a whole, which expresses progress, which expresses change, and which implies a goal. They agree in saying that God must he brought into a life somehow, and in some aspect, if that life is to be anything else but an aimless wandering, if it is to tend to the point to which every human life should attain. But then they diverge, and, if we put them together, they say to us that there are three different ways in which we ought to bring God into our life. We should ‘walk with Him,’ like Enoch; we should ‘walk before’ Him, as Abraham was bade to do; and we should ‘walk after’ Him, as the command to do was given to all Israel. And these three prepositions, with, before, after, attached to the general idea of life as a walk, give us a triple aspect-which yet is, of course, fundamentally, one-of the way in which life may be ennobled, dignified, calmed, hallowed, focussed, and concentrated by the various relations into which we enter with Him. So I take the three of them.

1. ‘Enoch walked with God.’

That is a sweet, simple, easily intelligible, and yet lofty way of putting the notion which we bring into a more abstract and less impressive shape when we talk about communion with God. Two men travelling along a road keep each other company. ‘How can two walk together except they be agreed?’ The companion is at our side all the same, though the mists may have come down and we cannot see Him. We can hear His voice, we can grasp His hand, we can catch the echoes of His steps. We know He is there, and that is enough. Enoch and God walked together, by the simple exercise of the faith that fills the Invisible with one great, loving Face. By a continuous, definite effort, as we are going through the bustle of daily life, and amid all the pettiness and perplexities and monotonies that make up our often weary and always heavy days, we can realise to ourselves that He is of a truth at our sides, and by purity of life and heart we can bring Him nearer, and can make ourselves more conscious of His nearness. For, brethren, the one thing that parts a man from God, and makes it impossible for a heart to expatiate in the thought of His presence, is the contrariety to His will in our conduct. The slightest invisible film of mist that comes across the blue abyss of the mighty sky will blot out the brightest of the stars, and we may sometimes not be able to see the mist, and only know that it is there because we do not see the planet. So unconscious sin may steal in between us and God, and we shall no longer be able to say, ‘I walk with Him.’

The Roman Catholics talk, in their mechanical way, of bringing down all the spiritual into the material and formal, about the ‘practice of the presence of God.’ It is an ugly phrase, but it means a great thing, that Christian people ought, very much more than they do, to aim, day by day, and amidst their daily duties, at realising that most elementary thought which, like a great many other elementary thoughts, is impotent because we believe it so utterly, that wherever we are, we may have Him with us. It is the secret of blessedness, of tranquillity, of power, of everything good and noble.

‘I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were,’ said the Psalmist of old. If he had left out these two little words, ‘with Thee,’ he would have been uttering a tragic complaint; but when they come in, all that is painful, all that is

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solitary, all that is transient, bitterly transient, in the long succession of the generations that have passed across earth’s scene, and have not been kindred to it, is cleared away and changed into gladness. Never mind, though you are a stranger, if you have that companion. Never mind, though you are only a sojourner; if you have Him with you, whatever passes He will not pass; and though we dwell here in a system to which we do not belong, and its transiency and our transiency bring with them many sorrows, when we can say, ‘Lord! Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations,’ we are at home, and that eternal home will never pass.

Enoch ‘walked with God,’ and, of course, ‘God took him,’ There was nothing else for it, and there could be no other end, for a life of communion with God here has in it the prophecy and the pledge of a life of eternal union hereafter. So, then, ‘practise the presence of God.’ An old mystic says: ‘If I can tell how many times to-day I have thought about God, I have not thought about Him often enough.’ Walk with Him by faith, by effort, by purity.

2. And now take the other aspect suggested by the other word God spoke to Abraham: ‘I am the Almighty God, walk beforeMe and be thou perfect.’

That suggests, as I suppose I do not need to point out, the idea not only of communion, which the former phrase brought to our minds, but that of the inspection of our conduct. ‘As ever in the great Taskmaster’s eye,’ says the stern Puritan poet, and although one may object to that word ‘Taskmaster,’ yet the idea conveyed is the correct expansion of the commandment given to Abraham. Observe how ‘walk before Me’ is dovetailed, as it were, between the revelation ‘I am the Almighty God’ and the injunction ‘Be thou perfect.’ The realisation of that presence of the Almighty which is implied in the expression ‘Walk before Me,’ the assurance that we are in His sight, will lead straight to the fulfilment of the injunction that bears upon the moral conduct. The same connection of thought underlies Peter’s injunction, ‘Like as He . . .is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,’ followed immediately as it is by, ‘If ye call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth’-as a present estimate-’according to every mail’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear’-that reverential awe which will lead you to be ‘holy even as I am holy.’

This thought that we are in that divine presence, and that there is silently, but most really, a divine opinion being formed of us, consolidated, as it were, moment by moment through our lives, is only tolerable if we have been walking with God. If we are sure, by the power of our communion with Him, of His loving heart as well as of His righteous judgment, then we can spread ourselves out before Him, as a woman will lay out her webs of cloth on the green grass for the sun to blaze down upon them, and bleach the ingrained filth out of them. We must first walk ‘with God’ before the consciousness that we are walking ‘before’ Him becomes one that we can entertain and not go mad. When we are sure of the ‘with’ we can bear the ‘before.’

Did you ever see how on a review day, as each successive battalion and company nears the saluting-point where the General inspecting sits, they straighten themselves up and dress their ranks, and pull themselves together as they pass beneath his critical eye. A master’s eye makes diligent servants. If we, in the strength of God, would only realise, day by day and act by act of our lives, that we are before Him, what a revolution could be effected on our characters and what a transformation on all our conduct!

‘Walk before Me’ and you will be perfect. For the Hebrew words on which I am now commenting may be read, in accordance with the usage of the language, as being not only a commandment but a promise, or, rather, not as two commandments, but a

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commandment with an appended promise, and so as equivalent to ‘If you will walk before Me you will be perfect.’ And if we realise that we are under ‘the pure eyes and perfect judgment of’ God, we shall thereby be strongly urged and mightily helped to be perfect as He is perfect.

3. Lastly, take the other relation, which is suggested by the third of my texts, where Israel as a whole is commanded to ‘walk after the Lord’ their God.

In harmony with the very frequent expression of the Old Testament about ‘going after idols’ so Israel here is to ‘go after God.’ What does that mean? Communion, the consciousness of being judged by God, will lead on to aspiration and loving, longing effort to get nearer and nearer to Him. ‘My soul followeth hard after Thee,’ said the Psalmist, ‘Thy right hand upholdeth me.’ That element of yearning aspiration, of eager desire to be closer and closer, and liker and liker, to God must be in all true religion. And unless we have it in some measure, it is useless to talk about being Christian people. To press onwards, not as though we had already attained, but following after, if that we may apprehend that for which also we are apprehended, is the attitude of every true follower of Christ. The very crown of the excellence of the Christian life is that it never can reach its goal, and therefore an immortal youth of aspiration and growth is guaranteed to it. Christian people, are you following after God? Are you any nearer to Him than you were ten years ago? ‘Walk with Me, walk before Me, walk after Me.’

I need not do more than remind you of another meaning involved in this same expression. If I walk after God, then I let Him go before me and show me my road. Do you remember how, when the ark was to cross Jordan, the commandment was given to the Israelites to let it go well on in front, so that there should be no mistake about the course, ‘for ye have not passed this way heretofore.’ Do not be in too great a hurry to press upon the heels of God, if I may so say. Do not let your decisions outrun His providence. Keep back the impatience that would hurry on, and wait for His ripening purposes to ripen and His counsels to develop themselves. Walk after God, and be sure you do not go in front of your Guide, or you will lose both your way and your Guide.

I need not say more than a word about the highest aspect which this third of our commandments takes, ‘His sheep follow Him’-’leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps,’ that is the culmination of the walking ‘with,’ and ‘before,’ and ‘after’ God which these Old Testament saints were partially practising. All is gathered into the one great word, ‘He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.’

BI, "Ye shall walk after the Lord your God.

With, before, after

(with Gen_5:22; Gen_17:1):—You see that these three fragments, in their resemblances and in their differences, are equally significant. They concur in regarding life as a walk—a metaphor which expresses continuity, so that every man’s life is a whole, which expresses progress, and which implies a goal. They agree in saying that God must be brought into a life somehow, and in some aspect, if that life is to be anything else but an aimless wandering, if it is to tend to the point to which every human life should attain. But then they diverge, and, if we put them together, they say to us that there are three different ways in which we ought to bring God into our life. We should “walk with” Him, like Enoch; we should “walk before” Him, as Abraham was bade to do; and we should “walk after” Him, as the command to do was

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given to all Israel.

I. “Enoch walked with God.” Two men travelling along a road keep each other company. “How can two walk together except they be agreed?” The Companion is at our side all the same, though the mists may have come down and we cannot see Him. Enoch and God walked together, by the simple exercise of the faith that fills the Invisible with one great, loving face. The one thing that parts a man from God, and makes it impossible for a heart to expatiate in the thought of His presence, is the contrariety to His will in our conduct.

II. And now take the other aspect suggested by the other little word God spoke to Abraham: “I am the Almighty God, walk before Me and be thou perfect.” That suggests, as I suppose I do not need to point out, the idea not only of communion, which the former phrase brought to our minds, but that of the inspection of our conduct. As ever in the great Taskmaster’s eye, says the stern Puritan poet, and although one may object to that word “Taskmaster,” yet the idea conveyed is the correct expansion of the commandment given to Abraham. Observe how “walk with me” is dovetailed, as it were, between the revelation “I am the Almighty God” and the injunction “be thou perfect.” This thought that we are in that Divine Presence, and that there is silently, but most really, a Divine opinion being formed of us, consolidated, as it were, moment by moment through our lives, is only tolerable if we have been walking with God. We must first walk “with God” before the consciousness that we are walking “before” Him becomes one that we can entertain and not go mad. When we are sure of the “with” we can bear the “before.” A master’s eye maketh diligent servants. “Walk before Me” and you will be perfect. “If you will walk before Me you will be perfect.”

III. Lastly, take the other relation, which is suggested by the third of my texts, where Israel as a whole is commanded to “walk after the Lord” their God. In harmony with the very frequent expression of the Old Testament about “going after idols,” so Israel here is to “go after God.” What does that mean? Communion, the consciousness of being judged by God will lead on to aspiration and loving, longing effort to get nearer and nearer to Him. “My soul followeth hard after Thee,” said the Psalmist, “Thy right hand upholdeth me.” That element of yearning aspiration, of eager desire to be closer and closer, and liker and liker, to God must be in all true religion. And I need not do more than remind you of another meaning involved in this same expression. If I walk after God, then I let Him go before me and show me my road. Do you remember how, when the ark was to cross Jordan, the commandment was given to the Israelites to let it go well on in front, so that there could be no mistake about the course, “for ye have not passed this way heretofore.” Do not be in too great a hurry to press upon the heels of God, if I may so say. Do not let your decisions outrun His providence. Keep back the impatience that would hurry on, and wait for His ripening purposes to ripen and His counsels to develop themselves. Walk after God, and be sure you do not go in front of your Guide, or you will lose both your way and your Guide. I need not say more than a word about the highest aspect which this third of our commandments takes: “His sheep follow Him, “leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The ladder of attainment

From these words we gather that many expressions were needed to describe the true disposition and attitude of the mind of Israel toward God. Each expression denotes something different, and each seems to make a progressive advance.

I. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God. This means follow Him, i.e. go whither He

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would have you go. We must follow as the sheep follows the shepherd. But, again, we are not simply like sheep. When Israel came out of Egypt the trumpets were blown, and all followed in order behind them. This is of the first importance, that men should joyfully obey the cry. Follow Him—follow after Jesus!

II. Fear him. Those who resolve to follow Him must so do it that they shall honour Him and remember that He has power to withstand those who oppose Him. God’s people must be filled with a sense of His greatness, majesty, and righteousness as revealed in the Redeemer. Without the sense of this, we lose the attitude of mind in which we can best honour Him. Those who seek to follow Him without this fear are likely in time to become rebels in His kingdom.

III. Ye shall keep His commandments. God has given commands “Thou shalt”; “Thou shalt not.” The fear of God impels to the keeping of these. Not a cringing dread is this fear. This would make the keeping of the commandments merely a secondary matter. God must be so feared that what He has commanded shall be our delight to perform.

IV. Ye shall obey his voice. Even when His way seems enigmatic, and also when He gives special intimations of His will besides the commands laid down, just as He led Israel by ways they knew not, etc. On the way of life we must ever be on our guard so that we may find the right way, so much the more as snares are laid in our way by the adversary—from which we cannot deliver ourselves, but which we shall be able to avoid if we listen to the voice of the Spirit, who teaches us to be circumspect, and points out the way to us.

V. Ye shall serve Him, i.e. we must not be autocrats, but servants of God only. Thus we learn to please Him in self-denial and in a jealous care for His glory. Then, too, we shall gladly be found where the honour due to Him is offered with prayer and adoration.

VI. Ye shall cleave unto him, i.e. ye shall seek His presence with burning desires, and with deepest love and warmth of heart and spirit. When we have reached thus far, that we cleave to Him and Then grow up in Him, as the branch in the vine stem, great shall be our gain I may it be said of us, “Where I am, there shall also My servant be!” (J. C. Blumhardt.)

It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him. - Deuteronomy 13:4

TODAY IN THE WORD

When doctors find cancerous cells in their patients, they have only one goal: kill the cancer! By whatever means possible, cancer must be removed from the body. If this can be done, the patient might go on to live a long, normal life. So doctors attack the disease with all the resources they possess: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. These are strong remedies, and in themselves can have serious consequences and cause great suffering. Then why use them? Because the disease would do worse. The cancer must be completely eradicated.

It was in this same spirit that Moses cried, “You must purge the evil from among you” (Dt 13:5; cf. 1Co 5:13). The spiritual disease of idolatry could cripple or kill the nation--it must be annihilated.

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Purity in worship is serious business. Evil was to be eliminated from the national life of Israel. False prophets were to be executed. Anyone who tried to drag the people away from the Lord was to be dealt with ruthlessly. God even warned them to be ready for tests in this area (v. 3). Israel needed to learn that worship is the highest priority--higher than friends, family, and even marriage. If a loved one was an idolator, they were to “show him no pity” (Dt 13:8; cf. Luke 14:26). Compromise in this area would be spiritually fatal. How would they know such a person? A false prophet or idolator would ignore what God had done in history, lead them into disobedience to His Word, and fail to acknowledge His supremacy. The central test--even against the experience of a prophesied event coming true--was who the object of worship was. If it was anyone other than the Lord, that person was to be stoned by the community. Everyone was to take part in enforcing justice and restoring righteousness.

TODAY ALONG THE WAY

Here’s a question for self-examination today: Are there any idols displacing God in your life? Don’t be too quick to answer “no.” This is serious business. Examine your heart and your actions. What do you spend your time thinking about and on what do you spend your energy? Do these things show that you’re following God wholeheartedly, without compromise? Or do they suggest that God is more of a back-burner presence than you thought? Pray over these difficult and crucial questions.

5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death

for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God,

who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed

you from the land of slavery. That prophet or

dreamer tried to turn you from the way the

Lord your God commanded you to follow. You

must purge the evil from among you.

BARNES, "The context and parallel passages (compare Deu_17:7; Lev_20:2) indicate that there was to be a regular judicial procedure, and that the manner of the execution was to be by stoning. In this the community was to take its part in order to show its horror at the crime, and to clear itself of complicity therein.

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GILL, "And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death,.... Which death, according to the Targum of Jonathan, was to be killed with the sword:

because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God; or "spoken revolt against the Lord" (l), high treason against him, delivering out doctrine that tends to cause his subjects to rebel against him, and revolt from him; and therefore he is justly deserving of death, to draw off a people from him he had been so good and kind unto; so that to apostasy would be added the sin of ingratitude:

which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage; and so was not only their Lord by creation whom they ought to serve, but by redemption, which laid them under double obligation to serve him:

to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in; not by external force, but by the power of persuasion, by enticing words and arguments:

so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee; the evil man, by putting him to death, and the evil of idolatry, by not listening to the words of the false prophet.

HENRY, "2. Not to spare the tempter, Deu_13:5. That prophet shall be put to death, both to punish him for the attempt he has made (the seducer must die, though none were seduced by him - a design upon the crown is treason) and to prevent his doing further mischief. This is called putting away the evil. There is no way of removing the guilt but by removing the guilty; if such a criminal be not punished, those that should punish him make themselves responsible. And thus the mischief must be put away; the infection must be kept from spreading by cutting off the gangrened limb, and putting away the mischief-makers. such Dangerous diseases as these must be taken in time.

K&D, "Israel was to adhere firmly to the Lord its God (cf. Deu_4:4), and to put to death the prophet who preached apostasy from Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel out

of the slave-house of Egypt. לה2יחך�, “to force thee from the way in which Jehovah

hath commanded thee to walk.” The execution of seducers to idolatry is enjoined upon the people, i.e., the whole community, not upon single individuals, but upon the authorities who had to maintain and administer justice. “So shalt thou put the

evil away from the midst of thee.” הרע is neuter, as we may see from Deu_17:7, as

comp. with Deu_13:2. The formula, “so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee,” which occurs again in Deu_17:7, Deu_17:12; Deu_19:19; Deu_21:21; Deu_22:21-22, Deu_22:24, and Deu_24:7 (cf. Deu_19:13, and Deu_21:9), belongs to the hortatory character of Deuteronomy, in accordance with which a reason is given for all the commandments, and the observance of them is urged upon the congregation as a holy affair of the heart, which could not be expected in the objective legislation of the earlier books.

CALVIN, "5.And that prophet. Since the ministers of Satan deceive men by their

plausible exterior, when they vaunt themselves to be the prophets of God, Moses

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had already admonished them, that all. teachers were not to be listened to

indifferently, but that the true were to be distinguished from the false, and that,

after judgment had, those should obtain credit who deserved it. He now subjoins

the punishment of such as should creep in under the name of a prophet to draw

away the people into rebellion. For he does not condemn to capital punishment

those who may have spread false doctrine, only on account of some particular or

trifling error, but those who are the authors of apostasy, and so who pluck up

religion by the roots. Observe, again, that the season of this severity would not be

until a positive religion should be established; and, therefore, the grossness of the

impiety is expressly named, “if they should have tried to turn the people away

from the worship of the true God.” Moreover, that all excuse might be obviated,

Moses says that it is sufficiently manifested who God is, and how He is to be

worshipped, both by the wonderful blessing of their redemption, as well as by

the doctrine of the Law. Therefore, in order that God may shew that so heavy a

punishment is justly inflicted upon apostates, He declares the certainty of that

religion which should exist among the Israelites; as much as to say, that no

pardon could be granted to such impious contempt, since God had abundantly

proved the glory of His Godhead by the miracle of their redemption, and had

manifested His will in the Law.

It must then be remembered, that the crime of impiety would not otherwise merit

punishment, unless the religion had not only been received by public consent and

the suffrages of the people, but, being supported also by sure and indisputable

proofs, should place its truth above the reach of doubt. Thus, whilst their

severity is preposterous who defend superstitions with the sword, so also in a

well constituted polity, profane men are by no means to be tolerated, by whom

religion is subverted. (53) Thus they are unable to endure, who desire to be at

liberty to make disturbances with impunity; and therefore they call those

sanguinary who teach that the errors by which religion is undermined and

thence destroyed, should be restrained by public authority. But what will they

gain by openly raving against God? God commands the false prophets to be put

to death, who pluck up the foundations of religion, and are the authors and

leaders of rebellion. Some scoundrel or other gainsays this, and sets himself

against the author of life and death. What insolence is this! (54) As to their denial

that the truth of God stands in need of such support, it is very true; but what is

the meaning of this madness, in imposing a law upon God, that He should not

make use of the obedience of magistrates in this respect? And what avails it to

question about the necessity of this, since so it pleases God? God might, indeed,

do without the assistance of the sword in defending religion; but such is not His

will. And what wonder if God should command magistrates to be the avengers of

His glory, when He neither wills nor suffers that thefts, fornications, and

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drunkenness should be exempt from punishment. In minor offenses it shall not

be lawful for the judge to hesitate; and when the worship of God and the whole

of religion is violated, shall so great a crime be fostered by his dissimulation?

Capital punishment shall be decreed against adulterers; but shall the despisers of

God be permitted with impunity to adulterate the doctrines of salvation, and to

draw away wretched souls from the faith? Pardon shall never be extended to

poisoners, by whom the body alone is injured; and shall it be sport to deliver

souls to eternal destruction? Finally, the magistracy, if its own authority be

assailed, shall take severe vengeance upon that contempt; and shall it suffer the

profanation of God’s holy name to be unavenged? What can be more monstrous!

But it is superfluous to contend by argument, when God has once pronounced

what is His will, for we must needs abide by His inviolable decree

But it is questioned whether the law pertains to the kingdom of Christ, which is

spiritual and distinct from all earthly dominion; and there are some men, not

otherwise ill-disposed, to whom it appears that our condition under the Gospel is

different from that of the ancient people under the law; not only because the

kingdom of Christ is not of this world, but because Christ was unwilling that the

beginnings of His kingdom should be aided by the sword. But, when human

judges consecrate their work to the promotion of Christ’s kingdom, I deny that

on that account its nature is changed. For, although it was Christ’s will that His

Gospel should be proclaimed by His disciples in opposition to the power of the

whole world, and He exposed them armed with the Word alone like sheep

amongst wolves, He did not impose on Himself an eternal law that He should

never bring kings under His subjection, nor tame their violence, nor change

them from being cruel persecutors into the patrons and guardians of His

Church. Magistrates at first exercised tyranny against the Church, because the

time had not yet come when they should “kiss the Son” of God, and, laying aside

their violence, should become the nursing fathers of the Church, which they had

assailed according to Isaiah’s prophecy, that undoubtedly refers to the coming of

Christ. (Isaiah 49:6.) Nor was it causelessly that Paul, when he enjoins prayers to

be made for kings and other worldly rulers, added the reason that under them

"we may lead a quiet and peaceable life

in all godliness and honesty.” (1 Timothy 2:2.)

Christ, indeed as He is meek, would also, I confess, have us to be imitators of His

gentleness, but that does not prevent pious magistrates from providing for the

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tranquillity and safety of the Church by their defense of godliness; since to

neglect this part of their duty, would be the greatest perfidy and cruelty. And

assuredly nothing can be more base than, when we see wretched souls drawn

away to eternal destruction by reason of the impunity conceded to impious,

wicked, and perverse impostors, to count the salvation of those souls for nothing.

But, if under this pretext the superstitious have dared to shed innocent blood, I

reply that what God has once commanded must not be brought to nought on

account of any abuse or corruption of men. For, if the cause alone abundantly

distinguishes the martyrs of Christ from malefactors, though their punishment

may be identical, so the Papal executioners will not bring it to pass by their

unjust cruelty that the zeal of pious magistrates in punishing false and noxious

teachers should be otherwise than pleasing to God. And this is admirably

expressed in the words of Moses, when he reminds them that judgment must be

passed according to the law of God. I have already said that. this severity must

not be extended to particular errors, but where impiety breaks forth even into

rebellion. When it is added, “to thrust thee out of the way, which the Lord thy

God commanded thee,” we gather from it that none are to be given over to

punishment, but those who shall have been convicted by the plain word of God,

lest men should judge them arbitrarily. Whence it also appears that zeal will err

in hastily drawing the sword, unless a lawful examination shall have been

previously instituted.

PETT, "Deuteronomy 13:5

‘And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he

has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your (of ye) God, who brought you (ye) out

of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you (thee) out of the house of bondage, to

draw you (thee) aside out of the way which Yahweh your (thy) God commanded

you (thee) to walk in. So shall you (thou) put away the evil from the midst of

you.’

But the prophet or dreamer of dreams who seeks to lead them to worship false

gods shall be put to death for urging rebellion against their Overlord. This was

always the sentence on traitors in treaties. The greatness of their offence is

stressed by the reminder of the gratitude that they should have had for their

Overlord. He had brought them out of the land of Egypt (Deuteronomy 1:20;

Deuteronomy 4:20; Deuteronomy 4:37; Deuteronomy 5:6; Deuteronomy 5:15;

Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 6:21; Deuteronomy 7:8; Deuteronomy 7:18;

Deuteronomy 8:14; Deuteronomy 9:26; Deuteronomy 16:1; Deuteronomy 20:1;

Deuteronomy 26:8; Deuteronomy 29:25), delivering them by a mighty hand, and

had redeemed them from the house of bondage (Deuteronomy 7:8; Deuteronomy

15:15; Deuteronomy 24:18; see also Deuteronomy 5:6; Deuteronomy 6:12;

Deuteronomy 6:21; Deuteronomy 8:14; Deuteronomy 13:10; Deuteronomy

16:12; Deuteronomy 24:22). How then can they now turn against Him? It can be

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seen how important this motif is in the book. The stress on ‘redemption’

emphasises how He had exercised His power on their behalf. They had much to

be grateful for.

The severity of the punishment reflects the situation. At this new birth of the

nation it was essential that the children of Israel be fully protected, and it was

important that they themselves saw the severity of the offence. There could only

be one penalty. Death. For such teaching led to death.

“So shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.” Compare Deuteronomy

17:7; Deuteronomy 17:12; Deuteronomy 19:19; Deuteronomy 21:21;

Deuteronomy 22:21-22; Deuteronomy 22:24; Deuteronomy 24:7 also see

Deuteronomy 19:13; Deuteronomy 21:9. This was usually, but not always, by

death (see Deuteronomy 19:19). The evils in mind were considered to be so

serious that the death sentence was usually required. Evil was put away by

carrying out Yahweh’s sentence, and Moses wants them to see how important the

putting away of that evil was.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 13:5. Because he hath spoken — Taught, or persuaded

you. To turn you away from the Lord — To induce you to forsake God and his

worship. This shows that the most certain character of a true prophet is to be

taken from his doctrine, rather than from his miracles. To thrust thee out of the

way — This phrase denotes the great force and power of seducers to corrupt

men’s minds. So shalt thou put the evil away — Thou shalt remove the guilt, by

removing the guilty.

HAWKER, "Here is a line drawn to testify our faithfulness to GOD. To wink at

the daring attempt of anyone that strives to seduce us from our attachment to

JESUS is the greatest of crimes, and is in fact taking part with it. What a

beautiful picture hath the HOLY GHOST given us of the zeal of Phinehas on a

similar occasion, and what a blessed commendation follows it: Numbers 25:7;

Num_25:13. But Reader, when you have looked at the zeal of Phinehas, call to

mind what is said of Him whom Phinehas typified. Isaiah 59:17-18; John 2:17.

6 If your very own brother, or your son or

daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest

friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go

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and worship other gods” (gods that neither you

nor your ancestors have known,

BARNES, "If 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;

CLARKE, "If thy brother - or thy son - The teacher of idolatry was to be put to death; and so strict was this order that a man must neither spare nor conceal his brother, son, daughter, wife, nor friend, because this was the highest offense that could be committed against God, and the most destructive to society; hence the severest laws were enacted against it.

GILL, "If thy brother, the son of thy mother,.... A brother by mother's side, which is generally supposed to be the nearest relation, at least most out of question, so more liable to be regarded as being beloved:

or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom; most dearly beloved by him, as indeed each of these relations are by a man, there being none nearer or dearer to him:

or thy friend, which is as thine own soul; as dear to him as himself, and so strictly united in friendship, as if one soul dwelt in two bodies; such close friends were Jonathan and David, 1Sa_18:1. Some Jewish writers think the father is not mentioned, because of the reverence of him, with which all later dealings with him obliged to would seem inconsistent; but the reverence of God is to be preferred to the reverence of parents; and besides, if such near relations that are here mentioned, than which there are none nearer, are not to be spared if guilty of the sin after warned against, then not a father, who is in the same transgression:

entice thee secretly; when alone with him, which might be judged the most proper time to work upon him, there being none to oppose the enticer, or to assist the enticed; so Satan took the opportunity of Eve being alone when he attacked her with his temptation, and the same method is taken by his children:

saying, let me go and serve other gods which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers; not even their immediate ancestors, and so the calf was not of these gods; nor their more remote ancestors, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were no idolaters; nor even Terah, though he was one, yet the gods of the Canaanites and of the neighbouring nations, which seem to be here meant, at least principally, were such that he knew not. This circumstance may seem to carry in it an argument rather why they should not than why they should serve such gods; wherefore the words of the enticer seem to be only these:

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let us go and serve other gods, and what follows are the words of the Lord, descriptive of those gods, and so a dissuasive from serving them.

HENRY 6-7, "Further provision is made by this branch of the statute against receiving the infection of idolatry from those that are near and dear to us.

I. It is the policy of the tempter to send his solicitations by the hand of those whom we love, whom we least suspect of any ill design upon us, and whom we are desirous to please and apt to conform ourselves to. The enticement here is supposed to come from a brother or child that are near by nature, from a wife or friend that are near by choice, and are to us as our own souls, Deu_13:6. Satan tempted Adam by Eve and Christ by Peter. We are therefore concerned to stand upon our guard against a bad proposal when the person that makes it can pretend to an interest in us, that we many never sin against God in compliment to the best friend we have in the world. The temptation is supposed to be private: he will entice thee secretly, implying that idolatry is a work of darkness, which dreads the light and covets to be concealed, and in which the sinner promises himself, and the tempter promises him, secrecy and security. Concerning the false gods proposed to be served, 1. The tempter suggests that the worshipping of these gods was the common practice of the world; and, if they limited their adorations to an invisible Deity, they were singular, and like nobody, for these gods were the gods of the people round about them, and indeed of all the nations of the earth, Deu_13:7. This suggestion draws many away from religion and godliness, that it is an unfashionable thing; and they make their court to the world and the flesh because these are the gods of the people that are round about them. 2. Moses suggests, in opposition to this, that it had not been the practice of their ancestors; they are gods which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers.Those that are born of godly parents, and have been educated in pious exercises, when they are enticed to a vain, loose, careless way of living should remember that those are ways which they have not known, they nor their fathers. And will they thus degenerate?

JAMISON,"Deu_13:6-18. Without regard to nearness of relation.

If thy brother ... entice thee secretly — This term being applied very loosely in all Eastern countries (Gen_20:13), other expressions are added to intimate that no degree of kindred, however intimate, should be allowed to screen an enticer to idolatry, to conceal his crime, or protect his person. Piety and duty must overcome affection or compassion, and an accusation must be lodged before a magistrate.

CALVIN, "6If thy brother, the son of thy mother. The punishment which he had

commanded to be inflicted on false teachers, is now extended to each one of the

people. For although it is a lighter offense in a private individual to draw others

with him into error, both because his ignorance is excusable, and the profession

of a teacher does not increase his responsibility, yet a falling away from religion,

from whencesoever it arises, is intolerable to God. Only, those two points, to

which we have already adverted, are to be kept in remembrance, viz., that this

judgment can have no place except where religion is duly constituted; and, also,

that all are not to be put to death indifferently, who may have erred in some

particular, but that this severity is only to be exercised against apostates, who

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pluck up religion by the roots, so that the worship of God is adulterated, or pure

doctrine abolished. Nor indeed does God enjoin that the slipperiness of the

tongue is to be capitally punished, if it shall have inconsiderately let fall

something amiss, but rather (57) the wicked design of altering the true religion,

as the words clearly express the matter. It is worth while remarking with what

particularity God enforces upon us the duty of fostering and upholding religion:

for, because general laws are usually eluded by various exceptions, He expressly

says that neither brother, nor son, nor wife, nor intimate friend is to be spared.

(58) The eye is said to pity, because the very look is of great power in awakening

the affections on both sides; therefore it is not without reason that God requires

(59) such courage as may be moved to pity neither by tears, nor blandishments,

nor the sadness of the spectacle. The phrases, too, are emphatic, “thy brother,

who proceeded from the same womb;” “the wife who sleeps in thy bosom or

embrace;” “the friend whom you love as yourself;” in order that pure zeal, when

it sees God’s sacred name profaned, may not give way to any human affection.

Christ says that no one is worthy to be acknowledged as His disciple, but he who

shall neglect his father, and mother, and children, when necessary. So now God

declares that all our tenderest affections, which are implanted in us by nature,

and in which all the best persons sometimes indulge, are sinful, if they hinder us

from vindicating His glory.

It is pious and praiseworthy to love our wives and children as our own bowels;

nor is there any reason which forbids us from regarding our brother and our

friend with similar love; only let God be preferred to all, for it is too

preposterous to betray His glory for the sake of man. For to plead the love due to

our wives, or anything of the same kind, what is this but to set our affections

against God and His precepts? Wherefore the desire to mitigate that severity to

which He would harden us, betrays an effeminacy which He will not endure.

Now, there are two most just grounds for the heaviness of the punishment; first,

because we are almost all of us slack when we ought to be very zealous in

avenging the insults which God may receive; and, secondly, because more severe

remedies are applied to perilous diseases, so it is right that so noxious, and

altogether deadly pestilence as this should be met with extraordinary means.

And to this refers the expression “secretly. ” For although it might seem cruel to

betray such as have not publicly transgressed, yet, inasmuch as sectaries fly from

the light, and creep in by clandestine and deceitful arts, it is necessary to prevent

them from fraudulently infecting individual houses with their poison, as always

is the case with them. Therefore God would have their insidious endeavors

checked betimes, lest the contagion should spread.

COFFMAN, "Strangely, "father and mother" are not listed here, along with

other close kin, and, from this, Cook supposed that, "This could imply that no

one was obligated to impeach father or mother."[14]

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"The son of thy mother ..." (Deuteronomy 13:6). "These words are probably not

intended to identify the person spoken of here as a half-brother, but for the

purpose of showing the closeness of the relationship."[15] This requirement that

one should not even spare the closest of kin was "also the requirement in ancient

international treaties and suzerainty covenants."[16] Note the piling up of the

terminology in Deuteronomy 13:8, "do not consent, nor hearken, pity not,

neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal ... etc," "This makes the

commandment all the more impressive."[17]

There would appear to be a number of reasons why the form of death in capital

cases was made to be stoning. "This was the only form of capital punishment

recognized in Hebrew law. Perhaps it originated in a desire to avoid the shedding

of blood."[18] Another reason may have been in the requirement that the

condemned person be not touched by another!

WHEDON, "6. If thy brother, etc. — Should the enticement to idolatry come

from the bosom of the family, the head of the household was to see that the law

was administered. The seeming severity of the code is tempered when we

consider the debasing influences of the heathenism of the nations that were in

possession of the land. The great lawgiver guarded zealously the true interests of

his people.

ELLICOTT, "(6) If thy brother.—The substance of this law is that individual

idolaters might be executed in Israel. It justifies Jehu and Jehoiada in destroying

Baal out of Israel and Judah (2 Kings 10:19-27; 2 Kings 11:18). It also accounts

for the covenant made in the time of Asa (2 Chronicles 15:13), that whosoever

would not serve the Lord God of Israel should be put to death whether man or

woman.

The law may seem harsh, but its principle is reproduced in the Gospel: “He that

loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). “If

any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and

children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my

disciple” (Luke 14:26).

It is impossible to deny or escape the identity of the Lord Jesus with the Jenovah

of the Old Testament He does not always put the execution of His judgments into

human hands, but He is the same for ever.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 13:6. The son of thy mother — This is added, to

restrain the signification of the word brother, which is often used generally for

one near akin, and to express the nearness of the relation, the mother’s side

being usually the ground of the most fervent affection. Thy daughter — Thy

piety must overcome both thy affection and thy compassion to the weaker sex.

The father and mother are here omitted, because they are sufficiently contained

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in the former examples.

HAWKER, "Verses 6-10

I include these verses within one general observation, to preserve the thread of

the narration unbroken. I beg the Reader to observe with me, the striking

expression made use of in this precept; after, all the tender relations and

charities of life are enumerated, the man of GOD, adds, the friend, which is as a

man's own soul; intimating what our dear LORD taught, that even our own

flesh, the eye, or the right hand; the one must be plucked out and the other cut

off, if either come in competition with our attachment to our covenant GOD in

CHRIST. For who is so near or so dear as he that is a Brother born for

adversity, or the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother? Reader! is JESUS

indeed thus precious to you? If so, no secret or open temptations will be

sufficient to rob you of your happiness, or your GOD of his glory. See those

Scriptures, Proverbs 17:17; Pro_18:24; Matthew 5:29-30; 1 Corinthians 10:13.

BI 6-11, "If thy brother . . . entice thee.

Temptation to idolatry from kindred

I. It is the policy of the tempter to send his solicitations by the hand of those we love, whom we least suspect of any ill design upon us, and whom we are desirous to please, and apt to conform ourselves to. Satan tempted Adam by Eve and Christ by Peter. We are therefore concerned to stand upon our guard against an ill proposal, when the person that proposeth it can pretend to an interest in us, that we may never sin against God in compliment to the best friend we have in the world.

2. The temptation is supposed to be private: he will “entice thee secretly”; implying that idolatry is a work of darkness, which dreads the light and covets to be concealed; and which the sinner promiseth himself, and the tempter promiseth him, secrecy and security in.

II. It is our duty to prefer god and religion before the best friends we have in the world.

1. We must not in compliance to our friends break God’s law (Deu_13:8).

2. We must not in compassion to our friends obstruct the course of God’s justice (Deu_13:9). Those are certainly our worst enemies that would thrust us from God, our best friend; and whatever draws us to sin separates between us and God; it is a design upon our life, and to be resented accordingly. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)

SIMEON 6-11, "GUILT AND DANGER OF DEPARTING FROM GOD

Deuteronomy 13:6-11. If 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; namely, 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; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither

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shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; 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, And 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. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.

THERE is a striking difference between the laws of man and the laws of God: those which are framed by human legislators, proportion always the sanctions to the influence which crimes have upon the public welfare: whereas those enacted by our heavenly Lawgiver, mark with greater severity the evils which more immediately affect his own honour and glory. If one man robbed or maimed another, his law required only a four-fold restitution, or the infliction of a punishment precisely similar to the injury sustained: but if a man, even the dearest relative they had, should only propose to any of his people to worship another god in preference to Jehovah, he must instantly be brought before the magistrates, and, on conviction of the offence, be stoned to death.

It will be proper to consider this ordinance in a two-fold view;

I. As a temporary enactment—

This enactment, or law, appears at first sight to be severe: but we undertake to shew that it was,

1. Just, as it respected the individual—

[The greatest crimes against any human government are treason, and murder; and, by the general consent of mankind, the principals who are found guilty of those crimes are put to death. Now, in the tempting of men to idolatry, both these crimes were contained: there was treason against the King of kings; and there was murder, not indeed of the bodies, but of the souls, of men. The person who made the proposal, did by that very act endeavour to draw men from their allegiance to God, and to engage them on the side of God’s enemy and rival. And, as far as his endeavours were attended with success, he eternally destroyed all who complied with his solicitations. Now compare the crimes, and see whether those committed against God and the souls of men be not infinitely more heinous than those which reach no further than to human governments, and the bodily life: and, if they be, the justice of the punishment annexed to them will admit of no doubt: it will be just, that He whose throne we would subvert, should inflict upon us the penalty of death; and that they whom we would ruin for ever, should be made the executioners of that sentence.]

2. Merciful, as it respected the public—

[The Jews had been nurtured in the midst of an idolatrous nation; and, after their

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settlement in Canaan, they were surrounded with idolaters on every side. Moreover they were of themselves exceedingly addicted to idolatry. But the consequence of their departure from God would be, that they would bring his heaviest judgments upon them, and be reduced to a more calamitous condition than any people under heaven. But God was graciously pleased to put a barrier in their way, which, it might be hoped, they should never be able to pass. He not only annexed the penalty of death to an act of idolatry, but even to a proposal to commit that sin: yea, to prevent such a proposal from being ever made, he not only authorized, but commanded, the person to whom it was made, to give immediate information of it to the magistrates, and to be the first in inflicting the punishment of death. If the person making the proposal should be ever so dear to him, though it should be his own brother, or son or daughter, or even the wife of his bosom, or his friend that is as his own soul, he must make no difference; he must shew no respect of persons whatever: “Thou shalt not consent unto him, says God, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; but thou shalt surely kill him:” all natural affection must be laid aside, and be swallowed up in a concern for God’s honour; and the man himself must become the informer, the witness, and the executioner, even where the delinquent is dearer to him than his own soul. What child, what wife, what friend, if he had conceived an idolatrous inclination in his heart, would dare to mention it, when the person to whom he should mention it was precluded from all exercise of mercy, and was constrained to proceed against him according to this law? Thus then provision was made to prevent the possibility, as it should seem, of the nation ever yielding to idolatry, or provoking God to abandon them according to the threatenings which he had denounced against them. We are informed in the text that the very execution of this law was designed to produce this salutary effect [Note: ver. 11.]; and therefore much more must the enactment of it be an expression of love and mercy to the whole nation.]

This law indeed was only temporary: it was to continue in force only during the continuance of the Jewish polity: but it is nevertheless most instructive to us,

II. As a lasting admonition—

To the very end of time it will speak loudly to us; it declares to us, in the strongest terms,

1. The evil of departing from God—

[The annexing of the penalty of death, and of so cruel a death as that of stoning, is of itself no slight intimation of the evil of idolatry: but the requiring a man to execute this sentence against the wife of his bosom, or the friend that is as his own soul: the requiring him to do it even on account of a mere proposal, though the proposal was never carried into effect; the not suffering him to overlook or conceal the matter, but constraining him instantly to enforce the law without pity; how was it possible for God himself to mark the evil of this sin in blacker colours, or to shew his abhorrence of it in a stronger manner, than by such an enactment as this? The command to destroy a whole city for idolatry was scarcely a more awful demonstration of his anger than this [Note: ver. 12–18.].

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But it may be said, “This was idolatry, a sin to which we have no temptation.” It was idolatry: but permit me to ask, wherein the great evil of idolatry consists? Is it not in alienating our affections from God, and placing them on some creature? Is it not justly described by the Apostle as “loving and serving the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for evermore?” Is it not in this very view of the subject that covetousness is called idolatry, and that men are said to make “a god of their belly?” Is it not in this view that St. John says to all the Christian Church, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols?” What then does it signify, that we are not bowing down to stocks and stones, if there be idols enthroned in our hearts? God is equally provoked to jealousy, whether our idolatry be open and carnal, or secret and spiritual: and though he does not authorize man to proceed against us, he will take the matter into his own hand, and inflict upon us the punishment we deserve. It is in reference to this that St. Paul utters that severe denunciation against all who decline from their love to Christ; “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maran-atha;” that is, His departure from Christ deserves the heaviest judgments; and though we are not now at liberty to inflict them, God surely and quickly will.

O that all who have waxed cold in their affections towards God, would lay this to heart! If God be not seated on the throne of our hearts and sweetly ruling and reigning there, the creature is: and whether the idol be pleasure, or riches, or honour, or any thing else, however excellent or however base, we are idolaters; and shall be made to feel, that “it is an evil and bitter thing to forsake the Lord;” yea, that “it were better never to have known him, than, after knowing him, to depart from him.”]

2. The danger of being accessory to any one’s departure from him—

[There are a variety of ways in which we may be instrumental in turning others from God. What if we scoff at religion, and deride the practice of it as folly or enthusiasm; do we not, in fact, say to those around us, “Come, let us serve other gods?” What if we exert our influence and authority to deter people from attending where the word is preached with fidelity and power, or from associating with the despised followers of Jesus; are we not yet more decidedly guilty of hostility to God? for when we only scoff at religion, we leave people an alternative; but when we set ourselves to intimidate men from following after God, we are no longer seducers, but persecutors. But, supposing we do not take so decided a part against God, yet, if all our fears are against excess in religion, and none against a defect in it, if all the advice we give is to shun the cross and avoid the shame of a religious profession, and none at all to “endure the cross and despise the shame,” whom is it that we serve? Can we with propriety be called the friends and servants of our God? No: Find us in all the sacred records one single servant of his that ever shewed such dispositions as these. I forget: we can find one: we remember Peter’s kind solicitude for his Master, and his affectionate expression of it too; “Master, spare thyself:” but we remember also the answer of Jesus to him; “Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.” Let me then warn friends and relatives of every description how they use their influence; lest, whilst they think that they are shewing kindness to man, they be found in reality fighting against God. Let me remind them, that, whether they succeed or not, their guilt is the same; they have made the proposal, and for that proposal they shall die:

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and would to God that the being stoned to death were the worst punishment they shall endure! but, alas! it were infinitely “better that a millstone were put about their neck, and that they were cast into the midst of the sea, than that they should offend one of God’s little ones:” it were better, I say; because they would lose only the bodily life: but in turning any one from God, they forfeit their own souls, and expose themselves to everlasting misery in hell. If friends would see what use they should make of their influence, the prophet will tell them; they should endeavour to draw one another nearer unto God; and should themselves endeavour to lead the way [Note: Zechariah 8:21.].]

3. The need we have of firmness and steadfastness in religion—

[No one can tell what temptations he may have to encounter, or from what quarter they shall spring, or how specious and powerful they may be. Perhaps the children whom we have fondled with delight, or the wife of our bosom, or the friend that is as our own soul, may be our tempters to decline from God, or the occasions of our yielding to temptation. Perhaps the suggestion may be so specious, that it shall appear to have come from a prophet of the Lord, and to have been confirmed by a sign from heaven [Note: ver. 1–5; 2 Corinthians 11:13-13.]. But our principles of religion should be so fixed, as to be incapable of being moved even by an angel from heaven [Note: Galatians 1:8-9.]; and our practice of it should be so determined, that no considerations whatsoever should be able to make us swerve for one moment from the path of duty. The fate of the man of God who listened to the lying prophet, should teach us this [Note: 1 Kings 13:18-24.]. Our rule is clear, and we should follow it without turning either to the right hand or the left [Note: ver. 4.].

But it will be asked, How shall I obtain this steadfastness? I answer, Compare the God whom you serve, with all the gods that are his rivals and competitors. This is the consideration by which God himself enforces that which might otherwise have appeared a sanguinary edict: he grounds the severity of his displeasure on the greatness of the mercies he had bestowed upon them [Note: ver. 10.]. But what were those mercies in comparison of the blessings he has conferred on you? Think from what a bondage you are redeemed; think by what means that redemption has been accomplished for you; think what an inheritance is purchased for you; and then say whether any thing in this world can have such a claim to your regards as the Lord Jesus Christ has. Only get your hearts impressed with a sense of his love, and the vanities of time and sense will be to you no more than the dirt under your feet. Only commit yourselves to Christ, “and be strong in the grace that is in him,” and you will find, that “neither angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus:” for “he is able to keep you from falling,” and “will preserve you blameless unto his heavenly kingdom.” Whatever then your temptations be, or from whatever quarter they may spring, I say to every one of you, “Hold fast that thou hast, and let no man take thy crown [Note: Revelation 3:11.].”]

PULPIT, "Deuteronomy 13:6-11

A second case supposed is that of temptation to apostasy proceeding from some near relative or intimate friend. Not only was this to be resisted, but no consideration of

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affection or bend of friendship was to be allowed to interfere with the stern sentence which doomed the tempter to death; on the contrary, the person tempted was to be the first to lay hands on the tempter and put him to death. This was to be done by stoning, and the person he had tried to seduce was to cast the first stone.

Deuteronomy 13:6

Thy brother, the son of thy mother; thy full brother, allied to thee by the closest fraternal tie. The wife of thy Bosom; the object of thy tenderest affection, Whom it is thine to protect and cherish (cf. Deuteronomy 28:54, Deuteronomy 28:56; Micah 7:5). Thy friend, which is as thine own soul; i.e. whom thou lovest as thyself. The word translated "friend" ( רע, for רעה ) is from a verb which signifies to delight in, and conveys primarily the idea not merely of a companion, but of a friend in whom one delights; and the definition of true friendship is the loving another as one's self (Aristot; 'Eth. Nic.,' Deuteronomy 9:5). As commonly used, however, the word designates any one with whom one has any dealing or intercourse; and so our Lord expounds it (Luke 10:29, etc.). Secretly. If the temptation was in private, and so known only to thyself\.

PULPIT, “Deuteronomy 13:6-12

God or our brother.

Terribly stern is the duty here laid on the person enticed to idolatry. The law is adapted to an age of stern deeds, and to a people living under a stern dispensation. Yet, reflecting on the nature of the crime, on the constitution of the Jewish state, and on the issues to mankind which hung on the slender thread of this one nation's fidelity, it is difficult to see how it could well have been less stern than it is. Its severity was perhaps its mercy. Note, too, that the criminal could be executed only after formal impeachment, fair trial, and conclusively established guilt (cf. Deuteronomy 13:14; Deuteronomy 17:2-8; Deuteronomy 19:15-21).

I. GOD ALLOWS NO CLAIM OF NATURAL AFFECTION TO INTERFERE WITH HIGHER DUTY TO HIMSELF. It is the same stern voice which we hear even in the Gospels (Matthew 8:21, Matthew 8:22; Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26). The demands of God on his people's supreme and undivided allegiance are not now a whit less rigorous than they were of old.

II. GOD WOULD HAVE US REGARD THOSE WHO DELIBERATELY ATTEMPT TO SEDUCE US FROM HIM AS OUR WORST FOES. They really are so, whether they think it or not. No language is strong enough to paint the crime of seeking to seduce a soul from its allegiance to its God. The guilt of the man who deliberately sets himself to counter-work a child's affection for its parent, and to produce alienation of heart between them, is trivial in comparison with it. The crime is that of soul-murder. For in fidelity to God lies the happiness of life here, and salvation in the world to come. We are not, therefore, to allow any private affection to blind us to the enormity of this crime. Those whom we cherish as dearest are only the more guilty if they take advantage of our affection to betray us into deadly sin.

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III. GOD REQUIRES THAT WE DO NOT SPARE THOSE WHO ARE GUILTY OF THIS CRIME. We are no longer called upon—and we may be thankful for it-to impeach our seducers, and lead them out to death. Our religion requires that we return good for evil, that we pray for those who injure us, that we seek their conversion and salvation. But it does not require of us that we do not abhor their conduct, and severely reprobate and denounce it. We fail in duty if there is not placed on all attempts at spiritual seduction the immediate brand of our strongest condemnation.—J.O.

7 gods of the peoples around you, whether near

or far, from one end of the land to the other),

GILL, "Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you,.... As of the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Phoenicians:

nigh unto thee; as the above were, being on the borders of their land: the Targum of Jonathan interprets this of the idols of the seven nations, that is, of the land of Canaan: or

far off from thee; as the Babylonians, Persians, and others:

from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; which includes all the idols in the world, worshipped by whatsoever nation, and which were forbidden; and which shows the universality of idolatry in those times, and that that is an insufficient argument in its favour. Jarchi interprets this of the sun and moon, and the host of heaven, who go from one end of the world to the other; and this seems to have been the first and most common idolatry of the Gentile world, and which were worshipped in the several deities they set up.

K&D, "The second case was when the temptation to idolatry proceeded from the nearest blood-relations and friends. The clause, “son of thy mother,” is not intended to describe the brother as a step-brother, but simply to bring out the closeness of the fraternal relation; like the description of the wife as the wife of thy bosom, who lies in thy bosom, rests upon thy breast (as in Deu_28:54; Mic_7:5), and of the friend as “thy friend which is as thine own soul,” i.e., whom thou lovest as much as thy life (cf.

1Sa_18:1, 1Sa_18:3). תר(� belongs to יסית: if the temptation occurred in secret, and

therefore the fact might be hidden from others. The power of love and relationship, which flesh and blood find it hard to resist, is placed here in contrast with the supposed higher or divine authority of the seducers. As the persuasion was already very seductive, from the fact that it proceeded from the nearest blood-relations and most intimate friends, and was offered in secret, it might become still more so from the fact that it recommended the worship of a deity that had nothing in common with the forbidden idols of Canaan, and the worship of which, therefore, might appear of less consequence, or commend itself by the charm of peculiarity and novelty. To

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prevent this deceptive influence of sin, it is expressly added in Deu_13:8 (7), “of the gods nigh unto thee or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth,” i.e., whatever gods there might be upon the whole circuit of the earth.

CALVIN, "7Namely, of the gods of the people. The sum of the matter is to this

effect, that we should so acquiesce in the known truth, as that our ears may be

closed to all the falsehoods by which it is opposed. Men’s neighborhood to each

other commonly produces, by their intercommunication, a conformity of habits.

Thus errors pass from one to the other; (60) and since we are generally prone to

evil, the worse pervert the better. Since, then, the people of Israel were

everywhere surrounded by idolaters, they might have easily been enticed to

imitate them, unless measures were taken to prevent it. But the expression

“round about” is used, because a pretext for yielding might have been taken

from the fact, that the Israelites differed in religion not from a single nation only,

but from all who surrounded them on every side. For to whatever quarter they

looked, examples presented themselves to their eyes, whereby they were attracted

to a new and strange form of religion. He afterwards amplifies this, by adding,

even if those nations “be far off from thee;” for the Israelites were not divided

from their neighbors only, but severed also from the whole human race. But this

was no slight temptation, that they found no companions in the whole world, nor

any nation, which agreed with them. Besides, distance itself sometimes causes us

to have respect for those who are unknown to us; since the curiosity of men is

volatile, and traverses in its levity sea and land, in order to procure for itself

pestiferous monsters for the sake of their novelty. Meanwhile, God exalts the

faith which is founded on His Word, in comparison with the manners,

institutions, rites, and customs of all nations; for none has made any true

proficiency in religion unless he abominates whatever is opposed to it.

8 do not yield to them or listen to them. Show

them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them.

GILL, "Thou shall not consent unto him,.... To commit the idolatry enticed unto, or join with him in it:

nor hearken to him; not so much as patiently to hear him, but at once express an

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abhorrence of and indignation at what he recommends:

neither shall thine eye pity him; pitied he might be for his ignorance, stupidity, and wickedness, and on account of the miserable estate and condition he was in, and of those dreadful consequences which would follow upon it, if not converted from it; but no mercy was to be shown him on account of nearness of relation:

neither shall thou spare; to reprove him sharply and to expose him to public vengeance:

neither shall thou conceal him; neither him nor his sin, but make both public, acquaint others with it, and endeavour to bring him before the civil magistrate to be examined, tried, and judged; so far should they be from hiding his offence from others, or excusing and extenuating it, or from harbouring his person privately when sought for upon information.

HENRY 8-11, "II. It is our duty to prefer God and religion before the best friends we have in the world. 1. We must not, in complaisance to our friends, break God's law (Deu_13:8): “Thou shalt not consent to him. nor go with him to his idolatrous worship, no, not for company, or curiosity, or to gain a better interest in is affections.” It is a general rule, If sinners entice thee, consent thou not, Pro_1:10. 2. We must not, in compassion to our friends, obstruct the course of God's justice. He that attempts such a thing must not only be looked upon as an enemy, or dangerous person, whom one should be afraid of, and swear the peace against, but as a criminal or traitor, whom, in zeal for our sovereign Lord, his crown and dignity, we are bound to inform against, and cannot conceal without incurring the guilt of a great misprision (Deu_13:9): Thou shalt surely kill him. By this law the persons enticed were bound to the seducer, and to give evidence against him before the proper judges, that he might suffer the penalty of the law, and that without delay, which the Jews say is here intended in that phrase, as it is in the Hebrew, killing thou shalt kill him. Neither the prosecution nor the execution must be deferred; and he that was first in the former must be first in the latter, to show that he stood to his testimony: “Thy hand shall be first upon him, to mark him out as an anathema, and then the hands of all the people, to put him away as an accursed thing.” The death he must die was that which was looked upon among the Jews as the severest of all deaths. He must be stoned: and his accusation written is that he has sought to thrust thee away, by a kind of violence, from the Lord they God, Deu_13:10. Those are certainly our worst enemies that would thrust us from God, our best friend; and whatever draws us to sin, separates between us and God, is a design upon our life, and to be resented accordingly, And, lastly, here is the good effect of this necessary execution (Deu_13:11): All Israel shall hear and fear. They ought to hear and fear; for the punishment of crimes committed is designed in terrorem - to terrify, and so to prevent their repetition. And it is to be hoped they will hear and fear, and by the severity of the punishment, especially when it is at the prosecution of a father, a brother, or a friend, will be made to conceive a horror of the sin, as exceedingly sinful, and to be afraid of incurring the like punishment themselves. Smite the scorner that sins presumptuously, and the simple, that is in danger of sinning carelessly, will beware.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 13:8. Neither shall thine eye pity him — The reason of

the thing shows that two circumstances are implied: one is, that the seducer

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should be convicted by two sufficient witnesses before he should be put to death;

the other, that the offender obstinately persisted in the defence of idolatry in

spite of admonition; for who can doubt but a father, for instance, might save the

life of his son, in case he brought him to timely repentance? Neither shalt thou

conceal him — That is, smother his fault, hide or protect his person; but shalt

accuse him to the magistrate, and demand justice upon him.

9 You must certainly put them to death. Your

hand must be the first in putting them to death,

and then the hands of all the people.

GILL, "But thou shalt surely kill him,.... Not privately and secretly, when and where he entices, nor the enticed himself by his own authority, but after being examined, judged, and condemned by the civil magistrate; and none might judge a false prophet but the sanhedrim at Jerusalem, the sanhedrim of seventy one (m); see Luk_13:33, but the difficulty is how such an one could be convicted, since the affair was transacted secretly, Deu_13:6 and there were none present to be witnesses, none but the enticer and the enticed; so that either the enticer must be brought to a confession of his guilt, or the testimony of the enticed alone must be taken. The Jewish doctors say (n), that they laid in wait for the enticer, which they never did for any other person, and the method they took was this; the enticed brought two persons, and put them behind a hedge, so that they might see the enticer, and hear his words, and he not see them; and he said to the enticer, say what thou hast said to me privately; which said, the enticed answered to him, how shall we leave our God which is in heaven, and go and serve wood and stone? if he returned (from his evil) hereby, or was silent, he was free; but if he said unto him, so we are obliged, and thus it is comely for us; they that stood afar off, behind the hedge (or in a dark room), brought him to the sanhedrim, and stoned him, that is, after examination, trial, judgment, and condemnation:

thine hand shall be first upon him, to put him to death; he was to throw the first stone at him, partly to show his indignation against the sin he had enticed him to, and that it had not at all affected him so as to incline him unto it; and partly to show that he had bore a true testimony, of which a suspicion might have been created in the minds of some, had he been backward to the execution of him:

and afterwards the hand of all the people; who then could proceed with more certainty and satisfaction: this shows that the person enticed had not a right to kill the enticer, without a judicial process, and the order of the civil magistrate.

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JAMISON,"thou shalt surely kill him — not hastily, or in a private manner, but after trial and conviction; and his relative, as informer, was to cast the first stone (see on Deu_17:2; see on Act_7:58). It is manifest that what was done in secret could not be legally proved by a single informer; and hence Jewish writers say that spies were set in some private part of the house, to hear the conversation and watch the conduct of a person suspected of idolatrous tendencies.

CALVIN, "9But thou shalt surely kill him. He would not that every one should

privately execute vengeance without a public trial; but he referred to the

ordinary custom, that the witnesses should throw the first stone at condemned

criminals, as we shall see elsewhere. For it was an admirable provision, that God

would have those who had denounced the crime, to be the executors of its

punishment, in order that they should be more cautious and moderate in giving

their testimony. The reason, which is added at the end, “because he hath sought

to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, who brought thee out, ” etc., again

exaggerates the crime on the score of its ingratitude; which was detestable in

proportion to the inestimable blessing of their deliverance. It was an act of gross

wickedness to rebel against God after they had known Him; but it was still more

gross to undervalue their Deliverer. Finally, the advantage and fruit of this

severity is subjoined; for, whilst punishment was inflicted on one man’s crime,

all others were inspired with terror; and thus the death of one is a wholesome

discipline for all, in the way of example.

ELLICOTT, "(9) Thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death.—A

law tending to prevent false accusation. Where the witness is obliged to carry out

himself, or to aid in carrying out, the sentence he demands, secret accusation is

impossible; and it is far less easy to pervert the law in order to prosecute a

private quarrel.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 13:9-11. Thou shalt surely kill him — Not privately, a

permission to do which, under pretence of the party’s being guilty of the crime in

question, would have opened the door to innumerable murders; but by

procuring his death through the sentence of the magistrate. Thy hand shall be

first upon him — As the witness of his crime; for he was to be stoned to death,

and the accuser was to throw the first stone, together with the witnesses,

Deuteronomy 17:7. This law, at first sight, may appear too great a trial to

humanity; but it is indeed no more than requiring a compliance with that plain

principle of religion and morality, to sacrifice all private considerations to the

glory of God and good of mankind. All Israel shall hear and fear — The law,

though severe, yet was just and necessary, and calculated to preserve the body of

the people from the contagion of idolatry.

K&D, "To such persuasion Israel was not to yield, nor were they to spare the

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tempters. The accumulation of synonyms (pity, spare, conceal) serves to make the

passage more emphatic. 6)ה, to cover, i.e., to keep secret, conceal. They were to put

him to death without pity, viz., to stone him (cf. Lev_20:2). That the execution even in this case was to be carried out by the regular authorities, is evident from the words, “thy hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterwards,” which presuppose the judicial procedure prescribed in Deu_17:7, that the witnesses were to cast the first stones at the person condemned.

10 Stone them to death, because they tried to

turn you away from the Lord your God, who

brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of

slavery.

GILL, "And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die,.... It was not sufficient to answer the end of the law to cast a few stones at him, but he was to be stoned to death:

because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God; to compel by force of argument, or the dint of persuasion, to relinquish the profession of the true God, faith in him, and the worship of him:

which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; which aggravated the sin of the enticer, and would have made the sin of the enticed the more heinous had he fallen into it.

HENRY 10-11, "The death he must die was that which was looked upon among the Jews as the severest of all deaths. He must be stoned: and his accusation written is that he has sought to thrust thee away, by a kind of violence, from the Lord they God, Deu_13:10. Those are certainly our worst enemies that would thrust us from God, our best friend; and whatever draws us to sin, separates between us and God, is a design upon our life, and to be resented accordingly, And, lastly, here is the good effect of this necessary execution (Deu_13:11): All Israel shall hear and fear. They ought to hear and fear; for the punishment of crimes committed is designed in terrorem - to terrify, and so to prevent their repetition. And it is to be hoped they will hear and fear, and by the severity of the punishment, especially when it is at the prosecution of a father, a brother, or a friend, will be made to conceive a horror of the sin, as exceedingly sinful, and to be afraid of incurring the like punishment themselves. Smite the scorner that sins presumptuously, and the simple, that is in danger of sinning carelessly, will beware.

PARKER, “"Thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die" (Deuteronomy 13:10).—

The mode of capital punishment which constitutes a material element in the character

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of any law, was probably as humane as the circumstances of Moses admitted. It was

probably restricted to lapidation or stoning, which, by skilful management, might

produce instantaneous death. It was an Egyptian custom (Exodus 8:26). The public

effusion of blood by decapitation cannot be proved to have been a Mosaic

punishment, nor even an Egyptian; for in the instance of Pharaoh's chief baker

(Genesis 40:19), "Pharaoh shall lift up thine head from off thee," the marginal

rendering seems preferable—"shall reckon thee and take thine office from thee." He is

said to have been "hanged" (Genesis 41:13); which may possibly mean posthumous

exposure, though no independent evidence appears of this custom in ancient Egypt.

The appearance of decapitation, "slaying by the sword," in later times (2Samuel 4:8;

2Samuel 20:21-22; 2Kings 10:6-8) has no more relation to the Mosaic law than the

decapitation of John the Baptist by Herod (Matthew 14:8-12); or than the hewing to

pieces of Agag before the Lord by Samuel, as a punishment in kind (1Samuel 15:33);

or than the office of the Cherethites, 2) כרחיSamuel 8:18; 2Samuel 15:18; 2Samuel

20:7-23), or headsmen, as Gesenius understands by the word, from כרח "to chop off"

or hew down (executioners belonging to the bodyguard of the king); whereas

execution was ordered by Moses, probably adopting an ancient custom, to be begun

first by the witnesses, a regulation which constituted a tremendous appeal to their

moral feelings, and afterwards to be completed by the people (Deuteronomy 13:10;

Deuteronomy 17:7; Joshua 7:25; John 8:7). It was a later innovation that immediate

execution should be done by some personal attendant, by whom the office was

probably considered as an honour (2Samuel 1:15; 2Samuel 4:12). Stoning, therefore,

was probably the only capital punishment ordered by Moses. It is observable that

neither this nor any other punishment was, according to his law, attended with insult

or torture. Nor did his laws admit of those horrible mutilations practised by other

nations. For instance, he prescribed stoning for adulterers (comp. Leviticus 20:10;

Ezekiel 23:25; Ezekiel 16:38-40; John 8:5); but the Chaldeans cut off the noses of

such offenders. Mutilation of such a nature amounts to a perpetual condemnation to

infamy and crime. Moses seems to have understood the true end of punishment, which

is not to gratify the antipathy of society against crime, nor moral vengeance, which

belongs to God alone, but prevention. "All the people shall hear and fear, and do no

more so presumptuously."

11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and

no one among you will do such an evil thing

again.

GILL, "And all Israel shall hear, and fear,.... Shall hear of the death the enticer was put unto, and shall fear to act such a part he did, and be upon their guard against any such person, and be cautious that they are not drawn into sin by him:

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and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you; either to entice unto idolatry or commit it; which is a piece of wickedness against the first table of the law, and a very heinous one, and exceeding offensive and provoking to God, being so directly against his being, perfections, and glory.

12 If you hear it said about one of the towns the

Lord your God is giving you to live in

BARNES, "City was to keep jealous watch over city, as man over man. The clause “which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell in” significantly reminds them that the real ownership of their dwellings rested in the Lord (compare Lev_25:23), and that they, the mere tenants, must not allow His property to become a center of rebellion against His just authority.

GILL, "If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities,.... A report concerning them, anyone of them:

which the Lord thy God had given thee to dwell there; which he had not only given them, but had put them into the possession of, and it was become their dwelling place, or was inhabited by Israelites; otherwise they were already given unto them, but did not inherit and inhabit them, and it might be possible that there might be some city or cities, at least for a time, which, though given them, were not inhabited by them, but by the Canaanites, and such cities this law did not concern: saying; as follows.

HENRY 12-13, "Here the case is put of a city revolting from its allegiance to the God of Israel, and serving other gods.

I. The crime is supposed to be committed, 1. By one of the cities of Israel, that lay within the jurisdiction of their courts. The church then judged those only that were within, 1Co_5:12, 1Co_5:13. And, even when they were ordered to preserve their religion in the first principles of it by fire and sword to propagate it. Those that are born within the allegiance of a prince, if they take up arms against him, are dealt with as traitors, but foreign invaders are not so. The city that is here supposed to have become idolatrous is one that formerly worshipped the true God, but had now withdrawn to other gods, which intimates how great the crime is, and how sore the punishment will be, of those that, after they have known the way of righteousness, turn aside from it, 2Pe_2:21. 2. It is supposed to be committed by the generality of the inhabitants of the city, for we may conclude that, if a considerable number did retain their integrity, those only that were guilty were to be destroyed, and the city was to be spared for the sake of the righteous in it; for will not the Judge of all the

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earth do right? No doubt he will. 3. They are supposed to be drawn to idolatry by certain men, the children of Belial, men that would endure no yoke (so it signifies), that neither fear God nor regard man, but shake off all restraints of law and conscience, and are perfectly lost to all manner of virtue; these are those that say, “Let us serve other gods,” that will not only allow, but will countenance and encourage, our immoralities. Belial is put for the devil (2Co_6:15), and the children of Belial are his children. These withdraw the inhabitants of the city; for a little of this old leaven, when it is entertained, soon leavens the whole lump.

JAMISON,"Certain men, the children of Belial — lawless, designing demagogues (Jdg_19:22; 1Sa_1:16; 1Sa_25:25), who abused their influence to withdraw the inhabitants of the city to idol-worship.

K&D, "This was to be done, and all Israel was to hear it and fear, that no such wickedness should be performed any more in the congregation. The fear of punishment, which is given here as the ultimate end of the punishment itself, is not to be regarded as the principle lying at the foundation of the law, but simply, as Calvin expresses it, as “the utility and fruit of severity,” one reason for carrying out the law, which is not to be confounded with the so-called deterrent theory, i.e., the attempt to deter from crime by the mode of punishing (see my Archäologie, ii. p. 262).

CALVIN, "12.If thou shalt hear say. If impiety and rebellion should more widely

prevail, Moses declares that whole cities, together with their inhabitants, should

rather be destroyed, than that so great a crime should remain unpunished.

Hence we may better infer how unholy is the tenderness of those who would have

no punishment inflicted for the violation of the religion of God. If any sedition

may have arisen in an army or nation, and the contagion may have spread

through the whole multitude, the severity of a just and moderate ruler does not

usually proceed further than to punish the ringleaders; when, therefore, God

commands all without exception to be destroyed, the great atrocity of the crime is

made apparent. Hence, too, we are admonished, that zeal for God’s glory is but

cold among us, unless true religion is held to be of more value than the

preservation of a single city or people. But if so many together are to be dragged

to death in crowds, their impudence is more than detestable, and their pity

cruelty itself, who would take no account of God’s injured majesty, so that one

man may be spared. And since we are created to no other end, and live for no

other cause than that God may be glorified in us, it is better that the whole world

should perish, than that men should enjoy the fruits of the earth in order that

they may contaminate it with their blasphemies. If those who first professed

Christ’s name had been inspired with such zeal as this, true religion would never

have been overwhelmed, and almost extinguished by so many corruptions. But

we must always bear in mind what I have already said, that this severity must

not be resorted to except when the religion is suffering, which is not only

received by public authority and general opinion, but which is proved on solid

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grounds to be true; so that it may clearly appear that we are the avengers of God

against the wicked.

PETT, "Judgment On The City That Rebels (Deuteronomy 13:12-17).

The same was to be true for any city in Israel that turned after idolatry. It must

not be tolerated. But note the extensiveness of the enquiry that should be made

first. This was no place for hasty judgments. ‘Enquire -- search -- ask diligently.’

It must not be done on the basis of a rumour, but only after intensive

investigation. The same principle no doubt applied to the previous examples.

And no gain was to be made by anyone from it. All that was in that city must be

devoted to Yahweh, and destroyed, and the city itself made a ruin never to be

rebuilt because it was tainted with blasphemy. The offence was so great that all

that was connected with it must be destroyed.

The general principle behind these words should be noted, that no judgment

must be passed without a fair hearing. To judge someone summarily and without

fair consideration is to follow the Evil One, and sadly too many Christians, and

even ministers, do it.

Analysis using Moses’ words:

a If you shall hear tell concerning one of your cities, which Yahweh your

God gives you to dwell there, saying, “Certain base fellows (‘worthless people’)

are gone out from the midst of you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of

their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known”

(Deuteronomy 13:13).

b Then shall you enquire, and make search, and ask diligently, and, behold,

if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in the

midst of you (Deuteronomy 13:14).

c You shall surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the

sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is in it and its cattle, with the edge of the

sword (Deuteronomy 13:15).

c And you shall gather all the spoil of it into the midst of its street, and shall

burn with fire the city, and all its spoil every whit, to Yahweh your God, and it

shall be a heap for ever. It shall not be built again (Deuteronomy 13:16).

b And there shall cleave nothing of the devoted thing to your hand, that

Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and

have compassion on you (Deuteronomy 13:17).

a And multiply you, as He has sworn to your fathers, when you shall listen

to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep all His commandments which I

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command you this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh your God

(Deuteronomy 13:18).

In ‘a’ reference is made to certain unworthy people who live in a city which

Yahweh their God has given His people to dwell in, a great boon for which they

owe Him their allegiance and yet they have turned away from Him (and will thus

be under His anger), and in the parallel is the blessing that will come to those are

not base and Who cleave to Yahweh their God doing what is right in His eyes. In

‘b’ diligent enquiry is to be made into the situation in order to eradicate any evil

or abomination, and in the parallel nothing that is abominable and fitted to

devotion to destruction is to cleave to His righteous people so that the anger of

Yahweh may be turned away and they at least be spared through His

compassion. In ‘c’ the sentence on the wayward city is described and in the

parallel this is expanded on.

Deuteronomy 13:12-14

‘If you shall hear tell concerning one of your cities, which Yahweh your God

gives you to dwell there, saying, “Certain base fellows (‘worthless people’) are

gone out from the midst of you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their

city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, then

shall you enquire, and make search, and ask diligently, and, behold, if it be truth,

and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in the midst of you,’

If news came of the defection of a city, given to them by Yahweh, to other gods,

(it is Yahweh’s city and they are handing it over to the enemy), brought about by

‘worthless people’, (an expression of extreme contempt), then a full official

investigation of the matter must be made. All Israel must be involved (accusing

or taking a city was no simple matter). But they must only carry out the sentence

when they know that the thing is certain. That this was taken seriously comes out

in Judges 19-21, although the sin was of a different kind.

Note the word ‘abomination’ which is regularly used of idolatry. It is that which

cannot be excused under any circumstances. It is totally displeasing to God and

to be avoided at all costs. It is despicable.

But what an important general principle is established here for us. If you ‘hear

tell’ you must not do anything without a thorough investigation. That is one

difference between gossip and truth. Gossip is mischievously passing on

rumours. Truth is something not spoken about until full enquiry has been made.

The amount of harm which would have been prevented if only Christians and

Christian leaders and others had taken this to heart is inestimable.

COFFMAN, "Alexander states that the words here rendered "hear tell"

sometimes have the meaning of "overhearing," as in Genesis 27:5;[19] but

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nothing like that is meant here. It is merely a reference to the common gossip

about a town that reaches to another town. In the event of such an evil report

coming in about some sister city, the report was to be carefully sifted, diligently

researched, and after all doubt of the truth of the report was removed, then, and

not before then, the town was to be devoted, that means, "It was to be placed

under the ban in its most destructive phase."[20] Notice here that no punishment

was to be inflicted until the fullest possible investigation had been completed.

"Many of the principles of British common law can be traced to these Mosaic

enactments."[21]

One of the most significant things in these early books of the Bible is found in

Joshua 22, where is given a historical example of how Israel honored this law in

the instances of an event which, according to the gossip of the day, indicated that

the trans-Jordanian tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had erected an altar

contrary to the law of God and were, in fact, defecting from the holy religion of

Israel. The other tribes sent a delegation to make inquiry, headed by Phinehas,

who was still living, and the result was so satisfactory in clearing up the false

report that Phinehas even pronounced a benediction upon the builders of the

monument (falsely reported as an unauthorized altar). Joshua 22 contradicts

everything connected with the false allegations of critics trying to date

Deuteronomy in the 9th century B.C. As McGarvey put it:

"Now, whoever wrote this account, and whatever date may be assigned to the

Book of Joshua, if this account is true, all debate about the Mosaic authorship of

Deuteronomy ought to terminate right here."[22]

All such witnesses against the evil theories, however, are shouted out of the Bible

altogether by its enemies, who, without any evidence to sustain them, without the

slightest excuse, and without even the semblance of any reason, declare of all

such passages: "They don't belong ... they are not historical ... they are a gloss ...

they are interpolations, etc. etc." It is far past time that any such criticism should

receive any attention whatever from Christians. They do not derive from

intelligence, or scholarship, or any kind of investigation whatever, but are pure

and simply the children of unbelief!

Some have professed horror at what they call "these bloody laws" in

Deuteronomy, but, as Jamieson said, "These laws were in accordance with the

national constitution of Israel. God was their King, and idolatry was therefore

treason and justly deserved the penalties of rebellion."[23]

Note the word "abomination" in Deuteronomy 13:14. Wright observed that,

"This is the strongest word that the O.T. possesses for that which is impure,

unclean, and lacking in holiness."[24]

"Smite the inhabitants of that city ... (Deuteronomy 13:15)." By adopting the

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paganism of the doomed cities of Canaan, any city of the Israelites would by such

an adoption have made themselves the same kind of an abomination that

pertained to the doomed cities of Canaan, and it would not have been just for

Almighty God to have spared any Israelite city so defiled from the punishment

meted out against the condemned cities of Canaan. "Note too that the Divine

Suzerain, like the common lords in their ancient treaties, imposed strict

regulations upon the disposal of the spoil that resulted from the destruction of

any rebellious city."[25] God's law differed in this respect, that the spoil was in

no sense whatever expected to enrich the persons inflicting the penalty of

destruction. It was to be burnt up, made a part of the holocaust that should bring

the death of the doomed city. This was an important distinction, because it meant

that no monetary rewards would accrue to the people inflicting the punishment.

Such a role would have effectively prevented any hasty destruction on the basis

of improper or insufficient evidence. Any city incurring such a penalty "was to

be made a ruin, never to be rebuilt; and thus was to be treated the same as a

heathen idolatrous city."[26]

It was especially important that no Israelite allow any of the spoil of the doomed

city to "cleave to his hand" (Deuteronomy 13:17). Keil pointed out that, "An

example of how such property placed under the ban, if appropriated by an

Israelite, would bring the wrath of God upon the whole people is seen in the case

of Achan (Joshua 7)."[27] Speaking of how God's law that forbade the taking of

spoil from the doomed cities was designed to restrain the greed of men, Adam

Clarke questioned, "How few religious wars there would have been in the world,

if they had been regulated by the principle: `Thou shalt neither extend thy

territory, nor take any spoils?'"[28]

ELLICOTT, "(12) If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities.—The only case of

this kind is the case of Gibeah. We may fairly assume the abominations done

there to have been connected with idolatry, from the allusions in Hosea 9:9;

Hosea 10:9. But the outrage rather than the idolatry seems to have excited the

indignation of Israel (see Judges 20, 21). It is noticeable that in the remonstrance

with the Benjamites at Gibeah—(Judges 20:13): “Now therefore deliver us the

men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death,

and put away evil from Israel”—there seems to be an allusion to the language of

this chapter in Deuteronomy 13:5; Deuteronomy 13:11.

HAWKER, "Verses 12-18

The sacred writer rises by a gradation from the sin of individuals to that of a

whole city, and here in this instance, like as in the case of Sodom, GOD is so

jealous of his honor, that rather than his glory shall be tarnished, all shall be

swept away with the besom of destruction. Reader, pause over this solemn

account, call to remembrance your own apostacy, unbelief, denials of GOD and

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the like, and then look up to JESUS, as the only means whereby thou art

preserved to this day, amidst all the idols which you have set up at various times

in the heart. Oh, how precious is it to behold that LAMB of GOD, which hath

taken away the sins of his people. John 1:29.

PULPIT, “Deuteronomy 13:12-18

A city under ban.

The case here supposed is even more appalling than the former one, for it is the

inhabitants of a whole city who, with all that they have, are to be destroyed. Yet,

as it is certain that godly persons, dreading the execution of this sentence, would

leave this city as soon as they found out what was going on—being very possibly

the bearers of the tidings to others—the curse would practically take effect only

on those who were in league with the idolaters. Searching investigation was to

precede the infliction of doom (Deuteronomy 13:14).

I. EVIL-DISPOSED PERSONS CAN DO MUCH HARM. A few

men—"children of Belial"—perhaps, at first, but one or two, succeed in

seducing, and ultimately in destroying, a whole city. Their cancerous influence

speedily infected the mass. Like fire breaking out in a little corner of a building,

it soon involved the whole place in ruin. "One sinner destroyeth, much good"

(Ecclesiastes 9:18). "Evil communications corrupt good manners (1 Corinthians

15:33). Evil is not to be thought lightly of, because at first confined to a few

individuals, and circumscribed in its range of operations. It will spread faster

than good.

II. THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF EACH CITY IS OF INTEREST TO

THE WHOLE COMMUNITY. Disease in one part of the social organism will

speedily communicate itself to the other parts.

III. IMMEDIATE ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN TO REDUCE EVIL IN ITS

CHOSEN SEATS. No longer, indeed, with carnal weapons. We have no warrant

to proceed by fire and sword. A better way is open to us of reducing evil than by

judicial slaughter. The wickedness of a city is doubtless a token of God's wrath

resting upon it. If it repent not, his judgments will fall upon it with all the old

severity. But it does not lie with us to give effect to these judgments; God keeps

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them in his own hand. Our work, meanwhile, is the happier one of seeking the

reduction of evil by spiritual means—by reasoning, by persuasion, by preaching

of the truth, by substituting good influences for bad ones. These weapons are

adequate to the work for which they are given, and ought to be plied to the

utmost. Places differ in spiritual character. There are those of which it may be

said—as of Pergamos, "where Satan's seat is" (Revelation 2:13)—that in them

evil has a kind of stronghold. Against these, by preference, the assaults of God's

servants should be directed. The apostles chose for their attacks the leading

centers of pagan influence. One stronghold gained is worth a dozen outposts,—

J.O.

13 that troublemakers have arisen among you

and have led the people of their town astray,

saying, “Let us go and worship other gods”

(gods you have not known),

BARNES, "In Deu_15:9 and in Nah_1:11 the word “Belial” is rendered in our translation by the adjective “wicked.” The word means “worthlessness.”

(from Barnes’ Notes)

CLARKE, "Children of Belial - - ;yaal, profit יעל bal, not, and בל from ,בליעל

Sept. ανδρες�παρανοµοι, lawless men; - persons good for nothing to themselves or

others, and capable of nothing but mischief.

GILL, "Certain men, the children of Belial,.... Which signify either persons without a yoke, who have thrown off the yoke of God's law, and will not submit to it, or unprofitable ones, as wicked men be, both to God, themselves, and others:

are gone out from among you; not locally, but with respect to their religious sentiments and practices, having separated themselves from the people of God, and from the service of the sanctuary, the true worship of God, and a profession of it, and given into the worship of idols:

and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city; withdrawn them by the force of persuasion from the worship of the true God, and drawn them into idolatry:

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saying, let us go and serve other gods; unite as one man in the worship of the gods of the Gentiles:

which ye have not known; this was not said by the children of Belial, but is added by the Lord by way of explanation, showing what gods they were that these men advised them to serve, and confirms the observation made on Deu_13:6.

K&D, "The third case is that of a town that had been led away to idolatry. “If thou

shalt hear in one of thy cities.” חת>�, not de una, of one, which שמע with �� never can

mean, and does not mean even in Job_26:14. The thought is not that they would hear in one city about another, as though one city had the oversight over another; but there is an inversion in the sentence, “if thou hear, that in one of thy cities...worthless men have risen up, and led the inhabitants astray to serve strange

gods.” לאמר introduces the substance of what is heard, which follows in Deu_13:14.

יצא merely signifies to rise up, to go forth. מ@ר�ך�, out of the midst of the people.

CALVIN, "13.Certain men, the children of Belial. Moses puts a case, which very

often is wont to occur. For all do not break forth into impiety together at the

same moment, but Satan stirs up some who are like fans to excite others; and by

their instigations the multitude is led to imitate them. Moses calls such as these

“children of Belial;” (61) by which word some think that rebellious (proefractos )

men are pointed out, and expound it “without yoke.” Their opinion, however,

seems to be more correct, who interpret it “men of nothing,” men in whom

nothing good or praiseworthy is found; and literally translate it “those who are

worthless.” (62) This expression is invariably applied to the wicked (sceleratis,

improbis, et nequam ;) and therefore Paul, contrasting Christ with Belial,

designates by it Satan the chief of all the wicked. (2 Corinthians 6:15.) He uses

the words “gone out,” as if they had dared to come forward, and openly to

parade their impiety. But, though the evil may have originated with a few

authors, he does not mean that punishment should stop with them; as if the

instigation of others availed as an excuse for the multitude. And he enjoins

diligent inquiry to be made, for two reasons: viz., lest they should connive at the

iniquity, and be lax, and careless about it, or lest they should be too hasty and

precipitate in their judgment; because, on the one hand, whilst we are never

equitable, nor decide rightly in precipitation and anger, so on the other it betrays

base indifference, and something like disloyalty, to overlook so great a crime.

Thus both activity and moderation are commended, so that the judge may

neither be lax, nor make any decision until the matter shall be carefully inquired

into.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 13:13. Certain men, children of Belial — So the most

profligate and worthless are called in Scripture. The expression properly

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signifies persons without yoke, lawless, and rebellious, that will suffer no

restraint, that neither fear God nor reverence man. Are gone out from you —

Have separated themselves from you in point of religion, and carry themselves

stubbornly and presumptuously herein.

PULPIT, "Deuteronomy 13:13

Men, the children of Belial; the sons of worthlessness, utterly worthless persons.

Beli ya‛al (a compound of בלי, not, and על, to ascend, to have worth, to profit)

means primarily that which is low, hence worthlessness, naughtiness,

wickedness. In Deuteronomy 15:9, Belial is rendered in the Authorized Version

as an adjective, "wicked," and also in Nehemiah 1:11 . In Psalms 18:4, it is

rendered by "ungodly men." Most commonly it is treated as a proper name. But

in all places the proper meaning of the word might be retained. The Hebrews

described an object, of which any quality was predominantly characteristic, as

the son of that quality. Are gone out from among you; have gone forth from the

midst of you, i.e. have risen up among yourselves. Withdraw. The verb here is

the same as that rendered by "thrust," in Psalms 18:5 and Psalms 18:10. It

conveys the idea of drawing away with some degree of force, not mere easy

seduction, but impulsion by strong persuasion.

14 then you must inquire, probe and investigate

it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been

proved that this detestable thing has been done

among you,

GILL, "Then shalt thou inquire, make search, and ask diligently,.... That is, of the witnesses, as the Targum of Jonathan; and this is a case that is only taken into consideration and judged of by the great sanhedrim, or that of seventy one, at Jerusalem (o); and the method they took was this, when it fell under their cognizance: the great sanhedrim send and inquire and search till they know clearly that the whole city, or the greater part of it, are thrust away, and are turned to idolatry; after that they send two disciples of the wise men to admonish them and bring them back; if they return and repent, it is well, but if they continue in their folly, the sanhedrim order all Israel to go up against them to war, and they besiege them, and set themselves in battle array against them, until the city be broken up; and when it is broken up, immediately they set up many courts of judicature, and

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they judge them; and against whomsoever two witnesses come that he served idols, after they have admonished him they separate him; if all the worshippers be the fewest, they stone them, and the rest of the city are delivered; if they are found the greater number, they bring them to the great sanhedrim, and finish their judgment there, and they slay all those that have served with the sword:

and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain; that such wicked men have risen and have prevailed upon the inhabitants of the city where they live, to leave the worship of the true God, and go into idolatry, when there is full proof of this, and it is past all question that

such abomination is wrought among you; as idolatry is, which is an abomination to God, and ought to be so to all mankind, and especially to a people that profess his name.

HENRY, "II. The cause is ordered to be tried with a great deal of care (Deu_13:14): Thou shalt enquire and make search. They must not proceed upon common fame, or take the information by hearsay, but must examine the proofs, and not give judgment against them unless the evidence was clear and the charge fully made out. God himself, before he destroyed Sodom, is said to have come down to see whether its crimes were according to the clamour, Gen_18:21. In judicial processes it is requisite that time, and care, and pains, be taken to find out the truth, and that search be made without any passion, prejudice, or partiality. The Jewish writers say that, though particular persons who were idolaters might be judged by the inferior courts, the defection of a city was to be tried by the great Sanhedrim; and, if it appeared that they were thrust away to idolatry, two learned men were sent to them to admonish and reclaim them. If they repented, all would be well; if not, then all Israel must go up to war against them, to testify their indignation against idolatry and to stop the spreading of the contagion.

JAMISON,"Then shalt thou inquire — that is, the magistrate, to whom it officially belonged to make the necessary investigation. In the event of the report proving true, the most summary proceedings were to be commenced against the apostate inhabitants. The law in this chapter has been represented as stern and sanguinary, but it was in accordance with the national constitution of Israel. God being their King, idolatry was treason, and a city turned to idols put itself into a state, and incurred the punishment, of rebellion.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 13:1. Then thou shalt inquire — This is meant of the

magistrate, to whose office this properly belonged, and of whom he continues to

speak in the same manner, thou, Deuteronomy 13:15 and Deuteronomy 13:16.

The Jewish writers say, the defection of a city was to be tried by the great

sanhedrim. If it appeared that they were thrust away to idolatry, they were to

send two learned men to admonish them. If they repented, all was well; if not, all

Israel was to go up and execute this sentence. Though we do not find this law put

in execution, in all the history of the Jewish Church, yet, for neglecting the

execution of it on inferior cities, God himself, by the army of the Chaldeans,

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executed it on Jerusalem, the head city, which was utterly destroyed, and lay in

ruins for seventy years.

PULPIT, "Deuteronomy 13:14, Deuteronomy 13:15

After due inquiry, if it was found that such a thing had really been done in any

of their cities, the extreme penalty was to be inflicted on the city and all its

inhabitants—all were to be destroyed. Smite … with the edge of the sword;

literally, with the mouth of the sword, as biting and devouring like a ravenous

beast—a phrase for utter destruction.

15 you must certainly put to the sword all who

live in that town. You must destroy it

completely,[b] both its people and its livestock.

CLARKE, "Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants - If one city were permitted to practice idolatry, the evil would soon spread, therefore the contagion must be destroyed in its birth.

GILL, "Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword,.... This could not be the work of a single person, nor of the whole sanhedrim, but was what the whole nation was to join in, according to the above note:

destroying it utterly; pulling down the houses, and demolishing its walls and fortifications, or burning it, as afterwards explained:

and all that is therein; men, women, and children:

and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword; this severity was used to show the Lord's indignation against the sin of idolatry, and to deter persons from it, both individuals and bodies of men.

K&D, "Upon this report the people as a whole, of course through their rulers,

were to examine closely into the affair (היטב, an adverb, as in Deu_9:21), whether the

word was established as truth, i.e., the thing was founded in truth (cf. Deu_17:4; Deu_22:20); and if it really were so, they were to smite the inhabitants of that town with the edge of the sword (cf. Gen_34:26), putting the town and all that was in it under the ban. “All that is in it” relates to men, cattle, and the material property of

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the town, and not to men alone (Schultz). The clause from “destroying” to “therein” is a more minute definition of the punishment introduced as a parenthesis; for “the cattle thereof,” which follows, is also governed by “thou shalt smite.” The ban was to be executed in all its severity as upon an idolatrous city: man and beast were to be put to death without reserves; and its booty, i.e., whatever was to be found in it as booty-all material goods, therefore - were to be heaped together in the market, and

burned along with the city itself. ליהוה 6ליל (Eng. Ver. “every whit, for the Lord thy

God”) signifies “as a whole offering for the Lord” (see Lev_6:15-16), i.e., it was to be sanctified to Him entirely by being destroyed. The town was to continue an eternal hill (or heap of ruins), never to be built up again.

CALVIN, "15Thou shalt surely smite. Lest the severity of the punishment should

occasion surprise, let us first observe that the error was unpardonable, because

its authors, being educated in the doctrines of the Law, could not be deceived

involuntarily, nor unless they had grown weary of religion, and set their hearts

on the impostures of the devil. On this account God, in the Book of Jeremiah, in

order to inveigh more heavily against the inconstancy of the Jews, refers them to

distant isles and nations: “Passover (He says) and consider,” etc., “Hath a nation

changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their

glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, ” etc.

(Jeremiah 2:10.) For justly must their instability be accounted monstrous, that

they should have voluntarily forsaken the fountain of life, and have been carried

away to vanity by their preposterous love of novelty. If any should object that the

little children at least were innocent, I reply that, since all are condemned by the

judgment of God from the least to the greatest, we contend against Him in vain,

even though He should destroy the very infants as yet in their mothers’ womb.

When Sodom and the neighboring cities were swallowed up, we doubt not but

that in the mighty multitude many infants and pregnant women also perished;

and whilst our reason struggles against this, it is better rather to look up

reverently to the Divine tribunal, than to subject it to our own laws. The same

may be said of the destruction of Babylon; for when the Prophet exclaims:

“Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones,” he

assuredly eulogizes the just vengeance of God. (Psalms 137:9.) So also in this

passage, if it does not appear to us agreeable to reason that the whole race of

evil-doers should be exterminated, let us understand that God is defrauded of

His rights, whensoever we measure His infinite greatness, which the angels

themselves admiringly adore, by our own feelings. Although we must recollect

that God would never have suffered any infants to be destroyed, except those

which He had already reprobated and condemned to eternal death. But if we

admit God’s right to deprive of the hope of salvation whomsoever He sees fit,

why should the temporal punishment, which is much lighter, be found fault

with? Rather let us learn from the severity of this Law, how detestable is the

crime of setting up false and spurious modes of worship, since it contaminates

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not only the infants, whose age prevents them from being conscious of it, (63) but

even the cattle and flocks, and the very houses and walls. For he proceeds

immediately afterwards to say,

PETT, "Deuteronomy 13:15-16

‘You shall surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword,

destroying it utterly, and all that is in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.

And you shall gather all the spoil of it into the midst of its street, and shall burn

with fire the city, and all its spoil every whit, to Yahweh your God, and it shall be

a heap for ever. It shall not be built again.’

But once the thing was proved the sentence must be carried out. The

contamination was so great that the guilty were to be slain, their cattle destroyed,

their goods burned with fire. All had been defiled. It was as though they had the

plague. It was to be given back to Yahweh in the most devastating way. It was to

be handed over to Him. It was to be ‘devoted’. Nothing must be saved from it. It

was for ever to be a heap of testimony to what had been done\.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 13:15. The inhabitants — Namely, all that were guilty,

not the innocent part, such as disowned this apostacy, who doubtless by choice,

at least upon warning, would come out of so wicked a place. Utterly — The very

same punishment which was inflicted upon the cities of the cursed Canaanites, to

whom, having made themselves equal in sin, it was but just God should equal

them in punishment.

16 You are to gather all the plunder of the town

into the middle of the public square and

completely burn the town and all its plunder as

a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God.

That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to

be rebuilt,

BARNES, "Every whit, for the Lord thy God - Some prefer: “as a whole offering to the Lord thy God.”

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GILL, "And thou shall gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof,.... All the wealth and substance of the inhabitants, their household goods, shop goods, merchandise, utensils in trade and business, and everything that can be named. The Jews say (p), if there is no street, they make one (or a marketplace); if that is without it, they bring them into the midst of it:

and shall burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit; be it what it may, or let it be whose property it will; and all this shall be done for the Lord thy God; as by his appointment and command, and in obedience to him, so for his honour and glory, and the vindication of his righteous law:

and it shall be an heap for ever, it shall not be built again; but lie a waste as Jericho, though not an entire waste; for according to the Jewish writers, though it might not be built as it was before, it might be made into gardens and orchards (q).

HENRY 15-16, "III. If the crime were proved, and the criminals were incorrigible, the city was to be wholly destroyed. If there were a few righteous men in it, no doubt they would remove themselves and their families out of such a dangerous place, and then all the inhabitants, men, women, and children, must be put to the sword (Deu_13:15), all the spoil of the city, both shop-goods and the furniture of houses, must be brought into the marketplace and burned, and the city itself must be laid in ashes and never built again, Deu_13:16. The soldiers are forbidden, upon pain of death, to convert any of the plunder to their own use, Deu_13:17. It was a devoted thing, and dangerous to meddle with, as we find in the case of Achan. Now, 1. God enjoins this severity of show what a jealous God he is in the matters of his worship, and how great a crime it is to serve other gods. Let men know that God will not give his glory to another, nor his praise to graven images. 2. He expects that magistrates, having their honour and power from him, should be concerned for his honour, and use their power for terror to evil doers, else they bear the sword in vain. 3. The faithful worshippers of the true God must take all occasions to show their just indignation against idolatry, much more against atheism, infidelity, and irreligion

JAMISON,"it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again — Its ruins shall be a permanent monument of the divine justice, and a beacon for the warning and terror of posterity.

CALVIN, "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

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by God. The word חרם, cherem, which the Greeks have translated anathema, (64)

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.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 13:16-17. For the Lord — For the satisfaction of God’s

justice, the maintenance of his honour and authority, and the pacification of his

offended majesty. It shall not be built — It shall be an eternal monument of

God’s justice and terror to after ages. Multiply thee — So thou shalt have no loss

of thy numbers by cutting off so many people.

PULPIT, "All the spoil thereof every whir, for the Lord thy God; rather, all the

spoil [booty] thereof as a whole offering unto Jehovah thy God; it was to be

wholly devoted to God, and as such to be consumed by fire. "It was a

destruction, and not properly an offering. Hence the author selects neither עולה

nor חטאת, but כליל, whole, whole offering (Deuteronomy 33:10 ; Le Deuteronomy

6:15 (22)), which word, in the law concerning offering, is no technical

designation of any particular kind of offering. The rendering omnino is

untenable" (Knobel). The city was to be made a ruin, never to be rebuilt; and

thus was to be treated the same as a heathen, idolatrous city might be (cf.

Numbers 21:3).

17 and none of the condemned things[c] are to

be found in your hands. Then the Lord will turn

from his fierce anger, will show you mercy, and

will have compassion on you. He will increase

your numbers, as he promised on oath to your

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ancestors—

CLARKE, "And there shall cleave naught of the cursed thing - As God did not permit them to take the spoils of these idolatrous cities, they could be under no temptation to make war upon them. It could only be done through a merely religious motive, in obedience to the command of God, as they could have no profit by the subversion of such places. How few religious wars would there ever have been in the world had they been regulated by this principle: “Thou shalt neither extend thy territory, nor take any spoils!”

GILL, "And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand,.... That is, they might not take anything whatever to their own use; for all being devoted to destruction, was cursed, and brought a curse upon the man that should make it his own property, as Achan did, when Jericho was destroyed:

that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger; stirred up by the idolatry of the city:

and show thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee; who, seeing wrath gone forth, might dread the consequences, lest it should spread itself further:

and multiply thee, as he hath sworn to thy fathers; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; this is observed to encourage them to execute his orders punctually in the destruction of the idolatrous city; since God could and would multiply them, as he had promised their fathers, with an oath, so that they should not be the fewer by such an instance of his severity.

HENRY 17-18, ". It is here intimated that the best expedient for the turning away of God's anger from a land is to execute justice upon the wicked of the land (Deu_13:17), that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, which was ready to break out against the whole nation, for the wickedness of that one apostate city. It is promised that, if they would thus root wickedness out of their land, God would multiply them. They might think it impolitic, and against the interest of their nation, to ruin a whole city for a crime relating purely to religion, and that they should be more sparing of the blood of Israelites: “Fear not the” (says Moses), “God will multiply you the more; the body of your nation will lose nothing by the letting out of this corrupt blood.” Lastly, Though we do not find this law put in execution in all the history of the Jewish church (Gibeah was destroyed, not for idolatry, but immorality), yet for the neglect of the execution of it upon the inferior cities that served idols God himself, by the army of the Chaldeans, put it in execution upon Jerusalem, the head city, which, for is apostasy from God, was utterly destroyed and laid waste, and lay in ruins seventy years. Though idolaters may escape punishment from men (nor is this law in the letter of it binding now, under the gospel), yet the

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Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgements. The New Testament speaks of communion with idolaters as a sin which, above any other, provokes the Lord to jealousy, and dares him as if we were stronger than he, 1Co_10:21, 1Co_10:22.

JAMISON,"there shall cleave naught of the cursed thing to thine hand — No spoil shall be taken from a city thus solemnly devoted to destruction. Every living creature must be put to the sword - everything belonging to it reduced to ashes - that nothing but its infamy may remain.

K&D, "To enforce this command still more strongly, it is expressly stated, that of all that was burned, nothing whatever was to cleave or remain hanging to the hand of Israel, that the Lord might turn from His wrath and have compassion upon the nation, i.e., not punish the sin of one town upon the nation as a whole, but have mercy upon it and multiply it, - make up the diminution consequent upon the destruction of the inhabitants of that town, and so fulfil the promise given to the fathers of the multiplication of their seed.

PETT, "Deuteronomy 13:17-18

‘And there shall cleave nothing of the devoted thing to your hand, that Yahweh

may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have

compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers, when you

shall listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep all his commandments

which I command you this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh

your God.’

Not a single thing must be saved from the destruction, and above all no one must

be tempted to take anything for themselves (compare Joshua 7). They must not

let anything cleave to them. All was tainted. It must be devoted to Yahweh in

order to cleanse the land. Then Yahweh would not need to come and exact

justice on a rebellious and tainted land. The picture is very much that of an

Overlord against whom a city has rebelled, but with others taking His side

against His enemies (otherwise they would be seen as sharing their guilt).

Compare what happened to Gibeah for their abomination (Judges 20:42-48).

“That Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of his anger.” This was no minor

misdemeanour, and Yahweh’s anger was directed towards the whole land for

allowing this in their midst. We are to recognise that we are as much guilty for

sin that we allow, as for sin that we commit. Unless we have done what we could

to be rid of it we are equally guilty.

And by their obedience the people will obtain mercy. Note the threefold ‘show

you mercy, have compassion on you, multiply you’, indicating complete

vindication. They will not share in the guilt of the city. And they will find that

their Overlord is as gracious to them as He was before. He will neither punish

the innocent nor clear the guilty. He will continue to fulfil His covenant, having

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compassion on them and multiplying them as He swore to their fathers.

“When you shall listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep all his

commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is right in the

eyes of Yahweh your God.” And this would be because they had listened to the

voice of Yahweh their God, and were keeping His commandments, and doing

what was right in His eyes (another triad). The lesson is clear. Response and

obedience will bring blessing, disobedience will bring judgment.

The whole chapter emphasises the words of the second commandment, that

Yahweh is jealous over the purity of His people, and will visit iniquity on the

guilty and have compassion on the thousands Who love Him and keep His

commandments (Deuteronomy 5:9-10; Exodus 20:5-6).

ELLICOTT, "(17) We seem to hear an echo of this verse in the close of the story

of Achan (Joshua 7:26): “And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned

them with fire after they had stoned them with stones, and they raised over him a

great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his

anger”

BI, "There shall cleave nought of the cursed thing.

Destroy the cursed thing

Israel must conquer idolatrous cities, and destroy all the spoil, regarding all that had been polluted by idolatry as an accursed thing to be burned with fire. Now, sin of all sorts must be treated by Christians in the same manner. We must not allow a single evil habit to remain. It is now war to the knife with sins of all sorts and sizes, whether of the body, the mind, or the spirit. We do not look upon this giving up of evil as deserving mercy, but we regard it as a fruit of the grace of God, which we would on no account miss. When God causes us to have no mercy on our sins, then He has great mercy on us. When we are angry with evil, God is no more angry with us. When we multiply our efforts against iniquity, the Lord multiplies our blessings. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

18 because you obey the Lord your God by

keeping all his commands that I am giving you

today and doing what is right in his eyes.

GILL, "When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God,.... Not only in this case, but in all others:

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to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day: the repetition of which he made unto them, and enjoined the observance of them in the name of the Lord:

to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God; which they would do, if they kept the commandments of the Lord, which are holy, just, and good, and must be right in his sight because commanded by him.

K&D, "Jehovah would do this if Israel hearkened to His voice, to do what was right in His eyes. In what way the appropriation of property laid under the ban brought the wrath of God upon the whole congregation, is shown by the example of Achan (Josh 7).

CALVIN, "18.When thou shalt hearken. Although this sentence depends on

something else, (as may be seen by referring to it,) yet is it general, and extends

to the commendation of the whole Law. Moses teaches first, that the rule of a

holy life must be sought from the mouth of God; and then adds that He must be

obeyed not partially, but universally. He confirms also what I have said

respecting obedience, for men only please God when they listen to His voice.

Moreover, the expression is worth our notice, wherein Moses only assumes for

himself the character of a minister, and claims power for God alone; for he says

that he commands, but expressly explains that the commandments which he sets

before them are God’s.

HAWKER, "Verse 18

REFLECTIONS

MY soul! behold to what temptations thou art exposed, not only from false

prophets and false teachers, but also from false friends and relations. How hath

the GOD of this word blinded the minds of men and brought them over to his

interests! How doth that prince of the power of the air, as he is called by the

apostle, still work in the children of disobedience! And how doth he govern them,

direct them, and influence them, by his secret insinuations, to dishonour GOD

themselves, and prompt others by their counsel and example! Are not evil spirits

and evil men of every description and character his ministers? And what are all

those acts of men which we behold going on in life, in drunken clubs, riotous

pastimes, revels, banquetings, interpreters of dreams, fortune-telling, and the

like, but so many sabbaths of his, and festivals to draw souls aside from the

LORD GOD of their fathers. "My Soul! come not thou into their secret; unto

their assembly, mine honor be not thou united." But dearest LORD! arm me

with thy grace, and the power of thy HOLY SPIRIT, that I may flee from

idolatry, and be found among the number of the faithful, in cleaving to thee, O

LORD, with full purpose of heart.

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