Deuteronomy 13:10

. By this law the persons enticed were bound to the seducer, and to give evidence against him before the proper judges, that he might suffer the penalty of the law, and that without delay, which the Jews say is here intended in that phrase, as it is in the Hebrew, killing thou shalt kill him. Neither the prosecution nor the execution must be deferred; and he that was first in the former must be first in the latter, to show that he stood to his testimony: "Thy hand shall be first upon him, to mark him out as an anathema, and then the hands of all the people, to put him away as an accursed thing." The death he must die was that which was looked upon among the Jews as the severest of all deaths. He must be stoned: and his accusation written is that he has sought to thrust thee away, by a kind of violence, from the Lord they God, v. 10. Those are certainly our worst enemies that would thrust us from God, our best friend; and whatever draws us to sin, separates between us and God, is a design upon our life, and to be resented accordingly, And, lastly, here is the good effect of this necessary execution (v. 11): All Israel shall hear and fear. They ought to hear and fear; for the punishment of crimes committed is designed in terrorem--to terrify, and so to prevent their repetition.

And it is to be hoped they will hear and fear, and by the severity of the punishment, especially when it is at the prosecution of a father, a brother, or a friend, will be made to conceive a horror of the sin, as exceedingly sinful, and to be afraid of incurring the like punishment themselves.

13:6-11 It is the policy of Satan to try to lead us to evil by those whom we love, whom we least suspect of any ill design, and whom we are desirous to please, and apt to conform to. The enticement here is supposed to come from a brother or child, who are near by nature; from a wife or friend, who are near by choice, and are to us as our souls. But it is our duty to prefer God and religion, before the nearest and dearest friends we have in the world. We must not, to please our friends, break God's law. Thou shalt not consent to him, nor go with him, not for company, or curiosity, not to gain his affections. It is a general rule, If sinners entice thee, consent thou not, Pr 1:10. And we must not hinder the course of God's justice.

And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die,.... It was not sufficient to answer the end of the law to cast a few stones at him, but he was to be stoned to death: because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God; to compel by force of argument, or the dint of persuasion, to relinquish the profession of the true God, faith in him, and the worship of him: which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; which aggravated the sin of the enticer, and would have made the sin of the enticed the more heinous had he fallen into it.

9. thou shalt surely kill him—not hastily, or in a private manner, but after trial and conviction; and his relative, as informer, was to cast the first stone (see on [126]De 17:2; [127]Ac 7:58). It is manifest that what was done in secret could not be legally proved by a single informer; and hence Jewish writers say that spies were set in some private part of the house, to hear the conversation and watch the conduct of a person suspected of idolatrous tendencies.

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.

Deuteronomy 13:10 . stone him with stones ] Also in Deuteronomy 17:5 , Deuteronomy 21:21 , Deuteronomy 22:21 ; Deuteronomy 22:24 : cp. Joshua 7:25 . This form of capital punishment was natural because of the ready supply of stones on the soil of Palestine, because it was a form in which all the people responsible for its execution could share, and also because of the belief that by covering the corpses the spirits of the dead were also finally laid to rest. For a curious case of the stoning of women who had reviled (or blasphemed) the sun see Musil, Ethn. Ber. 312. to draw thee away ] See on Deuteronomy 13:5 . house of bondmen ] See on Deuteronomy 13:5 . Deuteronomy 13:11 . all Israel ] D’s usual phrase for the people: see on Deuteronomy 4:44 . shall hear, and fear ] Deuteronomy 17:13 , Deuteronomy 19:20 , Deuteronomy 21:21 . do no more ] Sam., LXX add still or again . There is no more reason for taking this verse as secondary (Steuern.) than for taking as such the corresponding clause in Deuteronomy 13:5 ( q.v. ).

12 . beware ] give heed to thyself or be on guard with respect to thyself , apparently a common phrase from one person to another, Exodus 10:28 (J), etc.; addressed to Israel in the editorial passage, Exodus 34:12 and frequently in D: Deuteronomy 4:9 , Deuteronomy 8:11 (both followed, as here, by lest thou forget ), Deuteronomy 12:13 ; Deuteronomy 12:19 ; Deuteronomy 12:30 , Deuteronomy 15:9 , all Sg. and in the Pl. Deuteronomy 4:23 ; Deuteronomy 9:16 (cp. Deuteronomy 4:15 ). which brought thee , etc.] Once more an emphasis on the providence of Israel’s God. house of bondmen ] So in J, Exodus 13:3 ; Exodus 13:14 ; in Deut. only in Sg.: Deuteronomy 5:6 ; Deuteronomy 6:12 ; Deuteronomy 7:8 ; Deuteronomy 8:14 ; Deuteronomy 13:5 ; Deuteronomy 13:10 ; the slaves’ quarter (ergastulum). Deuteronomy 6:12

[Bible] 13:11. That all Israel hearing may fear, and may do no more any thing like this. 13:12. If in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God shall give thee to dwell in, thou hear some say: 13:13. Children of Belial are gone out of the midst of thee, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, and have said: Let us go, and serve strange gods which you know not: Belial... That is, without yoke. Hence the wicked, who refuse to be subject to the divine law, are called in scripture the children of Belial. 13:14. Inquire carefully and diligently, the truth of the thing by looking well into it, and if thou find that which is said to be certain, and that this abomination hath been really committed, 13:15. 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. 13:16. And all the household goods that are there, thou shalt gather together in the midst of the streets thereof, and shall burn them with the city itself, so as to comsume all for the Lord thy God, and that it be a heap for ever: it shall be built no more. 13:17. And there shall nothing of that anathema stick to thy hand: that the Lord may turn from the wrath of his fury, and may have mercy on thee, and multiply thee as he swore to thy fathers, 13:18. When thou shalt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, keeping all his precepts, which I command thee this day, that thou mayst do what is pleasing in the sight of the Lord thy God. Deuteronomy Chapter 14 In mourning for the dead they are not to follow the ways of the Gentiles: the distinction of clean and unclean meats: ordinances concerning tithes, and firstfruits. 14:1. Be ye children of the Lord your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness for the dead; 14:2. Because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God: and he chose thee to be his peculiar people of all nations that are upon the earth. 14:3. Eat not the things that are unclean.