12 If you hear it said about one of the towns the Lord your God is giving you to live in 13 that troublemakers(A) 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), 14 then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly.(B) And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you,(C) 15 you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely,[a](D) both its people and its livestock.(E) 16 You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town(F) and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God.(G) That town is to remain a ruin(H) forever, never to be rebuilt, 17 and none of the condemned things[b] are to be found in your hands. Then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger,(I) will show you mercy,(J) and will have compassion(K) on you. He will increase your numbers,(L) as he promised(M) on oath to your ancestors— 18 because you obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right(N) in his eyes.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 13:15 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
  2. Deuteronomy 13:17 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.

12 If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,

13 Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;

14 Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;

15 Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.

16 And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the Lord thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.

17 And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers;

18 When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God.

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