Deuteronomy 13

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 "Every command that I enjoin on you, you shall be careful to observe, neither adding to it nor subtracting from it.	1 “If there will have arisen in your midst a prophet, or someone who claims that he had seen a dream, and if he will have predicted sign and portent,
2 "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer who promises you a sign or wonder,	2 and if what he has spoken happens, and he says to you, ‘Let us go and follow strange gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’
3 urging you to follow other gods, whom you have not known, and to serve them: even though the sign or wonder he has foretold you comes to pass,	3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you, so that it may become clear whether or not you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 pay no attention to the words of that prophet or that dreamer; for the LORD, your God, is testing you to learn whether you really love him with all your heart and with all your soul.	4 Follow the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and listen to his voice. Him shall you serve, and to him shall you cling.
5 The LORD, your God, shall you follow, and him shall you fear; his commandment shall you observe, and his voice shall you heed, serving him and holding fast to him alone.	5 But that prophet or forger of dreams shall be put to death. For he has spoken so as to turn you away from the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt and who redeemed you from the house of servitude, and so as to cause you to wander from the way that the Lord your God has entrusted to you. And so shall you remove the evil from your midst.
6 But that prophet or that dreamer shall be put to death, because, in order to lead you astray from the way which the LORD, your God, has directed you to take, he has preached apostasy from the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and ransomed you from that place of slavery. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.	6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your own son or daughter, or your wife who is in your bosom, or your friend, whom you love like your own soul, were willing to persuade you secretly, saying: ‘Let us go, and serve foreign gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known,
7 "If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or your intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known,	7 gods from any of the surrounding nations, whether these are near or far away, from the beginning even to the end of the earth,
8 gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other:	8 you should neither agree with him, nor listen to him. And your eye should not spare him so that you take pity on him and conceal him.
9 do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him,	9 Instead, you shall put him to death promptly. Let your hand be upon him first, and after that, let the hands of all the people be sent forth.
10 but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you.	10 He shall be killed by being overwhelmed with stones. For he was willing to draw you away from the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, from the house of servitude.
11 You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.	11 So may all of Israel, upon hearing this, be afraid, so that nothing like this will ever be done again.
12 And all Israel, hearing of it, shall fear and never again do such evil as this in your midst.	12 If, in one of your cities which the Lord your God will give to you as a habitation, you hear someone say:
13 "If, in any of the cities which the LORD, your God, gives you to dwell in, you hear it said	13 ‘The sons of Belial have departed from your midst, and they have persuaded the inhabitants of their city, and they have said: “Let us go, and serve strange gods,” ’ which you have not known:
14 that certain scoundrels have sprung up among you and have led astray the inhabitants of their city to serve other gods whom you have not known,	14 inquire carefully and diligently, seeking the truth of the matter. And if you find that what was said is certain, and that this abomination is a work which has been perpetrated,
15 you must inquire carefully into the matter and investigate it thoroughly. If you find that it is true and an established fact that this abomination has been committed in your midst,	15 you shall promptly strike down the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword. And you shall destroy it, along with all the things that are in it, even the flocks.
16 you shall put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, dooming the city and all life that is in it, even its cattle, to the sword.	16 Then all the household goods which are there, you shall gather together in the midst of its streets, and you shall set fire to these, along with the city itself, so that you may consume everything for the Lord your God, and so that it may be an everlasting tomb. It shall no longer be built up.
17 Having heaped up all its spoils in the middle of its square, you shall burn the city with all its spoils as a whole burnt offering to the LORD, your God. Let it be a heap of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.	17 And there shall remain nothing of that anathema in your hand, so that the Lord may turn from the wrath of his fury, and may take pity on you, and may multiply you, just as he swore to your fathers,
18 You shall not retain anything that is doomed, that the blazing wrath of the LORD may die down and he may show you mercy and in his mercy for you may multiply you as he promised your fathers on oath;	18 when you will heed the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all his precepts, which I am entrusting to you this day, so that you may do what is pleasing in the sight of the Lord your God.”
19 because you have heeded the voice of the LORD, your God, keeping all his commandments which I enjoin on you today, doing what is right in his sight.