1 If there arise H6965 among H7130 you a prophet, H5030 or a dreamer H2492 of dreams, H2472 and giveth H5414 thee a sign H226 or a wonder, H4159
For the idols H8655 have spoken H1696 vanity, H205 and the diviners H7080 have seen H2372 a lie, H8267 and have told H1696 false H7723 dreams; H2472 they comfort H5162 in vain: H1892 therefore they went H5265 their way as a flock, H6629 they were troubled, H6031 because there was no shepherd. H7462
For thus saith H559 the LORD H3068 of hosts, H6635 the God H430 of Israel; H3478 Let not your prophets H5030 and your diviners, H7080 that be in the midst H7130 of you, deceive H5377 you, neither hearken H8085 to your dreams H2472 which ye cause to be dreamed. H2492
I have heard H8085 what the prophets H5030 said, H559 that prophesy H5012 lies H8267 in my name, H8034 saying, H559 I have dreamed, H2492 I have dreamed. H2492 How long shall this be H3426 in the heart H3820 of the prophets H5030 that prophesy H5012 lies? H8267 yea, they are prophets H5030 of the deceit H8649 of their own heart; H3820 Which think H2803 to cause my people H5971 to forget H7911 my name H8034 by their dreams H2472 which they tell H5608 every man H376 to his neighbour, H7453 as their fathers H1 have forgotten H7911 my name H8034 for Baal. H1168 The prophet H5030 that hath a dream, H2472 let him tell H5608 a dream; H2472 and he that hath my word, H1697 let him speak H1696 my word H1697 faithfully. H571 What is the chaff H8401 to the wheat? H1250 saith H5002 the LORD. H3068
But G1161 there were G1096 false prophets G5578 also G2532 among G1722 the people, G2992 even G2532 as G5613 there shall be G2071 false teachers G5572 among G1722 you, G5213 who G3748 privily shall bring in G3919 damnable G684 heresies, G139 even G2532 denying G720 the Lord G1203 that bought G59 them, G846 and bring G1863 upon themselves G1438 swift G5031 destruction. G684
For G1063 false Christs G5580 and G2532 false prophets G5578 shall rise, G1453 and G2532 shall shew G1325 signs G4592 and G2532 wonders, G5059 to G4314 seduce, G635 if G1487 it were possible, G1415 even G2532 the elect. G1588
He said H559 unto him, I am a prophet H5030 also as thou art; and an angel H4397 spake H1696 unto me by the word H1697 of the LORD, H3068 saying, H559 Bring him back H7725 with thee into thine house, H1004 that he may eat H398 bread H3899 and drink H8354 water. H4325 But he lied H3584 unto him.
Beware G1161 G4337 of G575 false prophets, G5578 which G3748 come G2064 to G4314 you G5209 in G1722 sheep's G4263 clothing, G1742 but G1161 inwardly G2081 they are G1526 ravening G727 wolves. G3074
Son H1121 of man, H120 prophesy H5012 against the prophets H5030 of Israel H3478 that prophesy, H5012 and say H559 thou unto them that prophesy H5030 out of their own hearts, H3820 Hear H8085 ye the word H1697 of the LORD; H3068 Thus saith H559 the Lord H136 GOD; H3069 Woe H1945 unto the foolish H5036 prophets, H5030 that follow H1980 H310 their own spirit, H7307 and have seen H7200 nothing!
Thus shalt thou also speak H559 to Shemaiah H8098 the Nehelamite, H5161 saying, H559
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Deuteronomy 13
Commentary on Deuteronomy 13 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
The first case. If a prophet, or one who had dreams, should rise up to summon to the worship of other gods, with signs and wonders which came to pass, the Israelites were not to hearken to his words, but to put him to death. The introduction of חלום חלם , “ a dreamer of dreams ,” along with the prophet, answers the two media of divine revelation, the vision and the dream, by which, according to Numbers 12:6, God made known His will. With regard to the signs and wonders ( mopheth , see at Exodus 4:21) with which such a prophet might seek to accredit his higher mission, it is taken for granted that they come to pass ( בּוא ); yet for all that, the Israelites were to give no heed to such a prophet, to walk after other gods. It follows from this, that the person had not been sent by God, but as a false prophet, and that the signs and wonders which he gave were not wonders effected by God, but σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα ψεύδους (“lying sings and wonders,” 2 Thessalonians 2:9); i.e., not merely seeming miracles, but miracles wrought in the power of the wicked one, Satan, the possibility and reality of which even Christ attests (Matthew 24:24). - The word לאמר , saying , is dependent upon the principal verb of the sentence: “if a prophet rise up...saying, We will go after other gods.”
God permitted false prophets to rise up with such wonders, to try the Israelites, whether they loved Him, the Lord their God, with all their heart. ( נסּה as in Genesis 22:1.) אהבים הישׁכם , whether ye are loving, i.e., faithfully maintain your love to the Lord. It is evident from this, “that however great the importance attached to signs and wonders, they were not to be regarded among the Israelites, either as the highest test, or as absolutely decisive, but that there was a certainty in Israel, which was so much the more certain and firm than any proof from miracles could be, that it might be most decidedly opposed to it” ( Baumgarten ). This certainty, however, was not “the knowledge of Jehovah,” as B. supposes; but as Luther correctly observes, “the word of God, which had already been received, and confirmed by its own signs,” and which the Israelites were to preserve and hold fast, without adding or subtracting anything. “In opposition to such a word, no prophets were to be received, although they rained signs and wonders; not even an angel from heaven, as Paul says in Galatians 1:8.” The command to hearken to the prophets whom the Lord would send at a future time (Deuteronomy 18:18.), is not at variance with this: for even their announcements were to be judged according to the standard of the fixed word of God that had been already given; and so far as they proclaimed anything new, the fact that what they announced did not occur was to be the criterion that they had not spoken in the name of the Lord, but in that of other gods (Deuteronomy 18:21-22), so that even there the signs and wonders of the prophets are not made the criteria of their divine mission.
Israel was to adhere firmly to the Lord its God (cf. Deuteronomy 4:4), and to put to death the prophet who preached apostasy from Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel out of the slave-house of Egypt. להדּיחך , “to force thee from the way in which Jehovah hath commanded thee to walk.” The execution of seducers to idolatry is enjoined upon the people , i.e., the whole community, not upon single individuals, but upon the authorities who had to maintain and administer justice. “ So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee .” הרע is neuter, as we may see from Deuteronomy 17:7, as comp. with Deuteronomy 13:2. The formula, “so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee,” which occurs again in Deuteronomy 17:7, Deuteronomy 17:12; Deuteronomy 19:19; Deuteronomy 21:21; Deuteronomy 22:21-22, Deuteronomy 22:24, and Deuteronomy 24:7 (cf. Deuteronomy 19:13, and Deuteronomy 21:9), belongs to the hortatory character of Deuteronomy, in accordance with which a reason is given for all the commandments, and the observance of them is urged upon the congregation as a holy affair of the heart, which could not be expected in the objective legislation of the earlier books.
The second case was when the temptation to idolatry proceeded from the nearest blood-relations and friends. The clause, “son of thy mother,” is not intended to describe the brother as a step-brother, but simply to bring out the closeness of the fraternal relation; like the description of the wife as the wife of thy bosom, who lies in thy bosom, rests upon thy breast (as in Deuteronomy 28:54; Micah 7:5), and of the friend as “thy friend which is as thine own soul,” i.e., whom thou lovest as much as thy life (cf. 1 Samuel 18:1, 1 Samuel 18:3). בּסּתר belongs to יסית : if the temptation occurred in secret, and therefore the fact might be hidden from others. The power of love and relationship, which flesh and blood find it hard to resist, is placed here in contrast with the supposed higher or divine authority of the seducers. As the persuasion was already very seductive, from the fact that it proceeded from the nearest blood-relations and most intimate friends, and was offered in secret, it might become still more so from the fact that it recommended the worship of a deity that had nothing in common with the forbidden idols of Canaan, and the worship of which, therefore, might appear of less consequence, or commend itself by the charm of peculiarity and novelty. To prevent this deceptive influence of sin, it is expressly added in Deuteronomy 13:8 (7), “ of the gods nigh unto thee or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth ,” i.e., whatever gods there might be upon the whole circuit of the earth.
To such persuasion Israel was not to yield, nor were they to spare the tempters. The accumulation of synonyms (pity, spare, conceal) serves to make the passage more emphatic. כּסּה , to cover, i.e., to keep secret, conceal. They were to put him to death without pity, viz., to stone him (cf. Leviticus 20:2). That the execution even in this case was to be carried out by the regular authorities, is evident from the words, “thy hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterwards,” which presuppose the judicial procedure prescribed in Deuteronomy 17:7, that the witnesses were to cast the first stones at the person condemned.
This was to be done, and all Israel was to hear it and fear, that no such wickedness should be performed any more in the congregation. The fear of punishment, which is given here as the ultimate end of the punishment itself, is not to be regarded as the principle lying at the foundation of the law, but simply, as Calvin expresses it, as “the utility and fruit of severity,” one reason for carrying out the law, which is not to be confounded with the so-called deterrent theory, i.e., the attempt to deter from crime by the mode of punishing (see my Archהologie, ii. p. 262).
The third case is that of a town that had been led away to idolatry. “ If thou shalt hear in one of thy cities .” בּאחת , not de una , of one, which שׁמע with בּ never can mean, and does not mean even in Job 26:14. The thought is not that they would hear in one city about another, as though one city had the oversight over another; but there is an inversion in the sentence, “ if thou hear, that in one of thy cities...worthless men have risen up, and led the inhabitants astray to serve strange gods .” לאמר introduces the substance of what is heard, which follows in Deuteronomy 13:14. יצא merely signifies to rise up, to go forth. מקּרבּך , out of the midst of the people.
Upon this report the people as a whole, of course through their rulers, were to examine closely into the affair ( היטב , an adverb, as in Deuteronomy 9:21), whether the word was established as truth, i.e., the thing was founded in truth (cf. Deuteronomy 17:4; Deuteronomy 22:20); and if it really were so, they were to smite the inhabitants of that town with the edge of the sword (cf. Genesis 34:26), putting the town and all that was in it under the ban. “ All that is in it ” relates to men, cattle, and the material property of the town, and not to men alone ( Schultz ). The clause from “destroying” to “therein” is a more minute definition of the punishment introduced as a parenthesis; for “the cattle thereof,” which follows, is also governed by “thou shalt smite.” The ban was to be executed in all its severity as upon an idolatrous city: man and beast were to be put to death without reserves; and its booty, i.e., whatever was to be found in it as booty-all material goods, therefore - were to be heaped together in the market, and burned along with the city itself. ליהוה כּליל ( Eng. Ver . “every whit, for the Lord thy God”) signifies “ as a whole offering for the Lord ” (see Leviticus 6:15-16), i.e., it was to be sanctified to Him entirely by being destroyed. The town was to continue an eternal hill (or heap of ruins), never to be built up again.
To enforce this command still more strongly, it is expressly stated, that of all that was burned, nothing whatever was to cleave or remain hanging to the hand of Israel, that the Lord might turn from His wrath and have compassion upon the nation, i.e., not punish the sin of one town upon the nation as a whole, but have mercy upon it and multiply it, - make up the diminution consequent upon the destruction of the inhabitants of that town, and so fulfil the promise given to the fathers of the multiplication of their seed.
Jehovah would do this if Israel hearkened to His voice, to do what was right in His eyes. In what way the appropriation of property laid under the ban brought the wrath of God upon the whole congregation, is shown by the example of Achan (Josh 7).