Idolaters to Be Put to Death
If a prophet rises up in your midst, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder,
and the sign or the wonder comes about, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods” — which you have not known — “and let us serve them”:
you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
After the LORD your God you shall walk, and him you shall fear; and his commandments you shall keep, and his voice you shall hear; and him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.
And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, for he has spoken rebellion against the LORD your God — who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and ransomed you from the house of slaves — to thrust you out of the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you in secret, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” — which you have not known, you or your fathers,
of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth —
you shall not consent to him, and you shall not listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, and you shall not spare, and you shall not cover for him.
For you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be against him first, to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward.
And you shall stone him with stones, and he shall die — for he sought to thrust you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.
And all Israel shall hear and be afraid, and shall not again do such an evil thing as this in your midst.
Idolatrous Cities to Be Destroyed
If you hear it said of one of your cities, which the LORD your God is giving you to live in,
that worthless men have gone out from your midst and have thrust away the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” — which you have not known —
then you shall inquire, and search, and ask thoroughly; and look — if the thing is true and established, that this abomination has been done in your midst,
you shall surely strike down the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, devoting it to destruction — it and all that is in it, and its beasts — with the edge of the sword.
And all its spoil you shall gather into the middle of its open square, and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole offering to the LORD your God; and it shall be a mound forever. It shall not be built again.
And nothing of what is devoted to destruction shall cling to your hand — so that the LORD may turn back from his burning anger and give you mercy, and have mercy on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers —
when you listen to the voice of the LORD your God, keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.