Deuteronomy 13

₁Moses said: ‘If one of you says he is a prophet or another person does a miracle, ₂then maybe the things he said will happen. But if he says: “Let's go and serve other gods”, gods that you do not know, ₃then you must not listen to that person who says he is a prophet or a fortune-teller, because it will be the Lord your God who is testing you. The Lord your God wants to know if you love Him with all your heart. ₄You must always serve and honour the Lord your God, you must respect Him and do what his laws say, you must listen to Him and serve Him and you must live as He wants. ₅But that person who says he is a prophet or a fortune-teller must die because he wanted you to rebel_against the Lord your God. He is the God who paid to free you from the land of Egypt where you were slaves. That person wanted you to stop living as the Lord your God told you to. You must take out everyone who is sinful among you so that the other Israelites will not be guilty with him.

₆Maybe it is your brother or your son, or your daughter or your wife to whom you are married, or your friend who wants to seduce you. That person may secretly tell you: “Let us go and worship other gods.” There will be gods that you and your forefathers did not know, ₇gods of the nations that were around you or nations from other places on earth. ₈When this happens, you must not do what that person wants. Do not listen to him, do not feel sorry for him, and do not forgive or protect him or her. ₉You must kill people like that. You have to do it. You must be the first person to pick up a stone to kill him, and then the other people must do the same. ₁₀You must kill him with stones because he tried to lead you away from the Lord your God who has saved you from the land of Egypt, the land where you were slaves. ₁₁The people of Israel must tell everyone what you have done and they must become afraid, so that no one will ever do a bad thing like that again.

₁₂Maybe they will tell you about something bad that has happened in one of the towns or cities that the Lord your God gives you to live in. ₁₃If bad people have seduced other people and made them serve other gods, that you do not know, ₁₄then you must make sure if it is true. If you see that it is true and you are sure that a bad thing like that has happened, ₁₅then you must kill all the people in that town or city with your swords. You must destroy the town and keep no one alive, not even the animals. ₁₆You must take everything in the town and throw it all on a heap in an open field and you must burn it all. The town and everything in it must be an offering to the Lord. That town must always stay like that, a heap of stones, and no one must build its walls again. ₁₇Do not take any plunder for yourselves from the things that you have to destroy. If you do what the Lord says, He will stop being angry and He will feel sorry for you. He will make you more and more as He promised your forefathers. ₁₈If you do that, then you will be listening to the Lord your God and you will be doing what He wants and you will be listening to everything that I am saying to you today. Then you will be doing things that the Lord says is right.’