Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Chapter 13. Synopsis of the chapter
God commands that the false prophet, and the friend who persuades the worship of a strange god, be put to death and stoned; and the city that worshipped a strange god he commands, verse 15, to be utterly destroyed, even to the cattle, and all its furniture to be burnt with the city.
1. If there rise in the midst of thee a prophet, or one that saith he hath dreamed a dream, and he foretell a sign and a wonder, 2. And that come to pass which he spoke, and he say to thee: Let us go, and follow strange gods, which thou knowest not, and let us serve them; 3. Thou shalt not hear the words of that prophet or dreamer: for the Lord your God trieth you, that it may appear whether you love him with all your heart, and with all your soul. 4. Follow the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and hear his voice: him shall you serve, and to him shall you cleave. 5. And that prophet or inventor of dreams shall be put to death: because he spoke to withdraw you from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of bondage; to make thee go out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in; and thou shalt take away the evil from the midst of thee. 6. If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son or daughter, or thy wife that is in thy bosom, or thy friend, whom thou lovest as thy own soul, would persuade thee secretly, saying: Let us go and serve strange gods, which thou knowest not, nor thy fathers, 7. Of all the nations round about, that are near or afar off, from one end of the earth to the other, 8. Consent not to him, hear him not, neither let thy eye spare him to pity him and conceal him, 9. But thou shalt presently put him to death. Let thy hand be first upon him, and afterwards the hands of all the people. 10. With stones he shall be stoned to death: because he would have withdrawn thee from the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage: 11. That all Israel hearing may fear, and may do no more any such thing. 12. If in one of thy cities which the Lord thy God shall give thee to dwell in, thou hear some say: 13. The children of Belial are gone out of the midst of thee, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, and said: Let us go and serve strange gods, which you know not: 14. Inquire carefully and diligently, and the truth of the thing being well examined, if thou find that that which is said be certain, and that abomination hath really been committed, 15. Thou shalt forthwith kill the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, and shalt destroy it and all things that are in it, even the cattle; 16. Whatsoever household stuff there shall be, thou shalt gather together in the midst of the streets thereof, and shalt burn it with the city itself, so as to consume all for the Lord thy God, and it shall be a heap for ever: it shall be built no more, 17. And there shall nothing of that anathema stick to thy hand: that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his wrath, and have mercy on thee, and multiply thee as he swore to thy fathers, 18. When thou shalt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, that thou do that which is pleasing in the sight of the Lord thy God.
2. LET US FOLLOW STRANGE GODS WHICH THOU KNOWEST NOT,—namely to be gods, because indeed they have not shown thee those signs of divinity and providence which I showed in Egypt and in the desert.
3. THE LORD TRIETH (that is, permits to be tried) YOU,—For, as St. James says, chapter i, 13, God properly tempts no one; but God permits thee to be tempted, that by this it may shine forth and be plain to all whether thou lovest God or not.
Morally, St. Gregory, Morals XXVIII, chapter vi: “In three ways,” he says, “our Maker is wont to question us. First, when with the severity of the scourge …strikes us, and shows how much patience is in us or lacking.” So he questioned holy Job. Secondly, when he commands certain things which we do not wish, and lays open to us our obedience or disobedience. So he questioned Abraham, bidding him immolate
13. THE CHILDREN OF BELIAL ARE GONE OUT, AND HAVE WITHDRAWN,—that is, apostates began to withdraw. For to rise up and to go out often in Scripture signifies to begin and to attempt some matter, as I said above.
THAT IT MAY APPEAR,—in Hebrew and Greek it is, that he may know; namely God by experience, and by the event, what he foreknew from eternity by foreknowledge. Otherwise St. Augustine, On Genesis against the Manichees, book I, chapter xxii: That he may know, he says, that is, that he may make us know how much we have advanced in his solid love. Let the faithful think the same, and arm themselves with this thought, when heresies arise, as Vincent of Lerins finely teaches, in the book Against Heresies, where he presses this place of Deuteronomy.
“Sons of Belial” are rebellious and most wicked men, who cast off the yoke of the law and of God, that is, sons of the devil; for he was the first Belial, that is, an apostate. The Septuagint renders it “lawless,” that is, without law. See what is said on 2 Corinthians vi.
LET US SERVE STRANGE GODS, WHOM YE KNOW NOT.—This is an enallage of person; for “let us serve” is the voice of the apostates, but “whom ye know not” is the voice of God; for the apostates would rather say: Whom you know to be famous and renowned among the Gentiles.
9. THOU SHALT STRAIGHTWAY PUT HIM TO DEATH.—To this slaughter all Israel was gathered together, as was done against the Rubenites, Josue xxii, 12.
16. THOU SHALT CONSUME IT FOR THE LORD THY GOD,—that is, in honour of thy God; for there was a great worship of God, as it were a kind of sacrifice, to destroy and punish those men, who were so injurious to God, blasphemers and sacrilegious, with all that is theirs, and to lay them under anathema, as an example to the rest. Hence Tertullian, in his Scorpiace, chap. ii, calls these anathemas devoted things.
5. THAT HE MIGHT CAUSE THEE TO ERR FROM THE WAY WHICH THE LORD THY GOD COMMANDED THEE.—“From the way,” that is, from the manner of living and of serving God. For the Hebrew derech, that is, way, signifies a manner of living, a conduct, a rule of life, the tenor of life.
9. BUT THOU SHALT PRESENTLY PUT HIM TO DEATH (thou shalt accuse him, that