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Shun Idolatry

¹ "^(F1)(C1)If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,² and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, '^(C1)Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,'³ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is ^(C1)testing you to find out if ^(C2)you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.⁴ "^(C1)You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and ^(C2)cling to Him.⁵ "But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be ^(C1)put to death, because he has ^(F1)counseled ^(F2)rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of ^(F3)slavery, ^(C2)to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. ^(C3)So you shall purge the evil from among you.

⁶ "^(C1)If your brother, your mother's son, or your son or daughter, or the wife ^(F1)you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, '^(C2)Let us go and serve other gods' (whom neither you nor your fathers have known,⁷ of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end),^8 (C1)you shall not yield to him or listen to him; ^(C2)and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him.⁹ "^(C1)But you shall surely kill him; ^(C2)your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.¹⁰ "So you shall stone him ^(F1)to death because he has sought ^(C1)to seduce you from the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^(F2)slavery.¹¹ "Then ^(C1)all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

¹² "If you hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that¹³ some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, '^(C1)Let us go and serve other gods' (whom you have not known),¹⁴ then you shall investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly. If it is true and the matter established that this abomination has been done among you,^15 (C1)you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, ^(F1)utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword.¹⁶ "^(C1)Then you shall gather all its booty into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its booty with fire as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God; and it shall be a ^(F1)(C2)ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt.¹⁷ "Nothing from that which is put under the ban shall cling to your hand, in order that the LORD may turn from ^(C1)His burning anger and ^(C2)show mercy to you, and have compassion on you and ^(C3)make you increase, just ^(C4)as He has sworn to your fathers,^18 (F1)if you will listen to the voice of the LORD your God, ^(F2)keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, ^(F3)and doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.