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Deuteronomy 13

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Guard Your Heart Against False Prophets

Chapter 13.

If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder he spoke of comes true, saying, 'Let's follow other gods you have not known, and let's serve them' —do not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. Your Father is testing you, to know whether you love your Father with all your heart and all your soul. Follow your Father, fear him, keep his commands, obey his voice, serve him, cling to him. That prophet or dreamer of dreams must be put to death, because he spoke rebellion against your Father, who brought you out of Egypt and rescued you from the slave house, to drive you off the way your Father commanded you to walk. So purge the evil from among you.

If your brother, your mother's son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you hold close, or your friend dear as your life, secretly lures you, saying, 'Let's go and serve other gods' — gods you and your ancestors never knew —from the gods of the peoples around you, near or far, from earth's one end to the other, Don't consent or listen to him; don't pity, spare, or hide him. No—you must put him to death. Your hand strikes first, then all the people's. Stone him to death, for he tried to turn you from your Father, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the slave house. All Israel will hear and be afraid, and never again do such an evil thing among you.

If you hear it said of one of your cities your Father gives you to live in, worthless men have gone out from among you and led their city's people astray, saying, 'Let's go and serve other gods you haven't known,' then search, examine, and ask carefully. If it's true and confirmed that this detestable thing was done among you, You must strike down that city's residents with the sword's edge, destroying it completely — everything in it and its livestock — with the sword's edge. Gather all its plunder into the middle of its square, burn the city and all its plunder in fire as a whole burnt offering to your Father. It stays a ruin forever, never rebuilt. Let nothing devoted to destruction cling to your hand, so your Father turns from his burning anger, gives you compassion, has mercy on you, and multiplies you, as he swore to your ancestors. if you obey your Father's voice, keeping all his commands I command you today, doing right in your Father's eyes.

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