Deuteronomy/Davarim 13: “so shall you burn out the evil from your midst!”

[First posted in 2013.  The ‘evil’ referred to here is not the ‘evil’ we, today, would normally think of—you know, corruption in government, crime, pornography, war atrocities—-hardly the big issue in the days of Moses and the Israelites.  

 

The ‘evil’ then was the biggie —- who or what puny non-gods or man-made gods on the pantheons of the deluded Torah-ignorant nations were competing with the One True God who revealed Himself on Sinai to the liberated slaves from Egypt, newly formed as a nation?  Their bane for the rest of their history would be idolatry — ironic for the one and only people who truly heard the voice of the True God and who were given the Way of Life –the Torah.  How could this be?

 

We, today, look back with judgmental attitudes thinking, ‘I wouldn’t have done what they did’ but then, we think in hindsight and 20/20 vision knowing what we now know, thanks to the same people who recorded ALL their sins and mistakes and were severely punished for turning away from their God.  

 

This chapter reminds them, as it reminds us today, of what this ‘evil’ is in the eyes of the One and Only God.  

Who are the gods of modern man, the ones that take our focus away from Him?  

 

Commentary comes from the best of Jewish minds, as collected by Dr. J.H. Hertz in his excellent resource Pentateuch and Haftorahs; this website uses EF/Everett Fox, The Five Boos of Moses..—Admin1.]

 

Deuteronomy/Davarim 13

(c)  RELIGIOUS SEDUCERS

Against the danger of religious seduction on the part of false prophets, self-deluded visionaries and base men.

 

1 Everything that I command you,

 that you are to take-care to observe, 

 you are not to add to it, you are not to diminish from it!

thou shalt not add thereto. See on IV,2. ‘Constant changes would tend to disturb the whole system of the Torah, and would lead people to believe that it was not of Divine origin.  But permission is at the same time given to the wise men, i.e. the Sanhedrin of every generation, to make “fences” round the judgments of the Torah, in order to ensure their keeping.  In the same manner, they have the power temporarily to dispense with some religious act prescribed in the Torah, or to allow that which is forbidden, if exceptional circumstances and events require it; but none of the laws can be abrogated permanently’ (Maimonides).

This prohibition is of more than theoretic interest in modern Judaism.  The various attempts made by revolutionary religious leaders to ‘accommodate’ Judaism to present-day conditions have all suffered spiritual shipwreck, because they acted in defiance of either ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, or of neither shall ye diminish from it. On the one hand, some attempted ‘to diminish’ Judaism by such vital things as the Sabbath, the Hebrew Language, and the Love of Zion.  And, on the other hand, there are those who, besides, are prepared ‘to add’ to the Jewish Heritage things that constitute a serious weakening of the Unity of God, and a radical departure from other fundamental principles of the Jewish Faith.

2-6.  A FALSE PROPHET

2 When there arises in your midst a prophet or a dreamer of dreams

and he gives you a sign or a portent,

a prophet.  A false prophet.

a dreamer of dreams. In Scripture, God often communicates with His chosen servants through the medium of dreams (Num. XII,6); and it would be easy for one who had experienced a dream to regard it as the vehicle of a Divine message.

or a wonder. Better or a parent. Not necessarily a miracle, but a prediction of something that shall happen in the future.

3 and it comes-about, the sign or the portent of which he spoke to you, saying:

Let us walk after other gods-whom you have not known-and let us serve them,

saying. The sense of the v. is. And the sign or the wonder came to pass whereof he spoke unto thee, saying, If what I foretell happens, let us go after other gods.

which thou hast not known. (XI,28. These are the words of Moses, and are not part of the remarks of the ‘prophet’.

4 you are not to hearken to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams, 

for YHVH your God is (only) testing you 

to know if you (truly) love YHVH your God 

with all your heart and with all your being.

thou shalt not hearken. ‘Reason, which declares his testimony false, is more to be trusted than the eye which sees his signs’ (Maimonides).

putteth you to proof. i.e. the fulfillment of the prediction is not evidence of the validity o f the man’s claims, but God is putting you to the test, whether your loyalty to God can withstand the most insidious seductions from His revealed will.  This refusal to recognize miracle as necessarily a proof of the truth of a doctrine is typically Jewish.  When Sir George Adam Smith writes that it is not in harmony with both the official and the popular mind of ancient Jewry, he does so as a New Testament apologist and in disregard of Rabbinic teaching.  the latter can be disregard of Rabbinic teaching.  The latter can be learned from the story of R. Joshua’s unchallenged assertion, ‘Miracles in themselves cannot be invoked as decisive in matters of reason and law.’ A thousand years later, Hallevi and Maimonides likewise maintained that miraculous acts can on no account be deemed as an unerring attestation of a Divine mission.

to know whether. These words do not mean that God desires to know whether they loved God, for He already knows it  The expression is an anthropomorphism, Scripture using ‘the language of men’.  If the Israelites succumbed to the test, it would demonstrate the weakness of their attachment to God; if they came through it successfully, their Faith would be strengthened as a result of the trial.

5 After YHVH your God you are to walk, 

him you are to hold-in-awe,

his commandments you are to keep,

to his voice you are to hearken,

him you are to serve, 

to him you are to cling!

ye shall walk . . . unto Him. lit. ‘after the LORD your God shall ye go, and Him shall ye fear, and His commandments shall ye keep , and His voice shall ye obey, and Him shall ye worship, and unto Him shall ye cleave.’

6 Now that prophet or that dreamer of dreams is to be put-to-death, 

for he has spoken defection against YHVH your God

-the one taking you out from the land of Egypt,

the one redeeming you from a house of serfs- 

by leading-you-away from the way 

on which YHVH your God has commanded you to walk; 

so shall you burn out the evil from your midst!

brought you out . . . redeemed thee. He hath spoken perversion against Him who is your Saviour and Redeemer, Who alone deserves Israel’s undivided allegiance and lasting gratitude.  Hoffmann calls attention to the fact that Christian theologians have often explained v. 2-6 in relation to the founder of their religion.  The rise of Christianity was indeed a test unto Israel; so also were the expansion of Christianity and its triumphant world-dominion an age-long trial of Israel’s loyalty to God and His Torah.  Israel nobly stood that test and trial.  It remained undazzled by the power of the dominant Faith, and undaunted

‘By the torture prolonged from age to age,

By the infamy, Israel’s heritage,

By the Ghetto’s plague, by the garb’s disgrace,

By the badge of shame, by the felon’s place,

By the branding tool, by the bloody whip,

And the summons to Christian fellowship.’ (Browning)

7-12. SEDUCERS IN ONE’S OWN FAMILY

As against God, even the closest personal ties are not to protect the would-be idolater from unsparing judgment.

7 When he allures you, your brother, the son of your mother,

or your son or your daughter or the wife of your bosom

or your neighbor who is (one) like your (very) self

in secret, saying: 

Let us go, let us serve other gods-whom you have not known, you and your fathers,

the son of thy mother. i.e. even if he be the son of thy mother.  In the days of polygamy, the sons of the same mother were more intimate with one another than with the sons of their father by another wife. ‘As so often, the Septuagint and the Samaritan Text misunderstand the Hebrew original, and insert the words, the son of thy father or before “the son of thy mother”–which renders it trivial’ (Koenig).

or thy daughter. Completing the blood relations. Very significantly and characteristically, father and mother are not mentioned as possible agents of temptation (Bertholet)

8 from the gods of the peoples that are around you,

those near to you or those far from you, 

from the (one) edge of the earth to the (other) edge of the earth-

nigh  . . . or far off. The gods of Canaan, or those of Babylon, or of any nation under heaven.

9 you are not to consent to him, 

you are not to hearken to him,

your eye is not to take-pity on him, 

you are not to show-mercy and you are not to condone him;

consent. ‘With the belief of the heart’ (Ibn Ezra); i.e ‘thou mayest not let thyself be convinced by what he says, even if thou stop short of doing what he desires.

nor hearken unto him. By actual worship of other gods.

conceal him. By silence.

10 rather, you are to kill, yes, kill him, 

your hand is to be against him from the beginning, to cause-his-death,

and the hand of the entire people at the end.

thou shalt surely kill him. Not that one is to take the law into his own hand, but that the would-be seducer must stand his trial and be condemned by a court.

thy hand shall be first. In the public infliction of the death penalty, according to XVII,7.  The convicting witness must bear the initial responsibility of the act, cost him what sorrow it may. Jewish history does not record a single instance of punishment of religious seduction by false prophet or member of one’s family.

13-19. A CITY TAINTED WITH IDOLATRY

11 You are to stone him with stones, so that he dies, 

for he sought to drive-you-away from YHVH your God, 

the one taking you out from the land of Egypt, from a house of serfs.

shalt hear.  The news must come to them; they are not to go on a heresy hunt.

12 Now all Israel will hear and be awed,

so that they will not do any more according to this evil matter in your midst!

13-14.  if . . . base fellows. Or, ‘If thou shalt hear tell that, in one of the cities which the LORD thy God giveth thee to dwell there, certain base fellows.’

13 When you hear in one of your towns that YHVH your God is giving you to settle in, saying:
14 Men, base-fellows have gone out from among you 

and have driven-away the settlers of their town, saying:

Let us go, let us serve other gods-whom you have not known:

base fellows.  Heb. ‘sons of Belial,’ i.e. ‘sons of worthlessness’l the term repeatedly used in Scripture for abandoned criminals , base in word, thought, and action.

are gone out. Of set purpose to seduce their brethren.

15 then you are to inquire, to examine and to investigate well,

and (if) here: the claim is certain (and) true 

this abomination was (indeed) done in your midst-

inquire. Careful investigation had to be made, because the rumour must be thoroughly tested before action is taken.

the thing certain. The story is substantiated.

16 strike-down, strike-down the settlers of that town with the edge of the sword,

devote it to destruction, it and all that is in it, and its animals, with the edge of the sword,
17 and all its booty, you are to gather to the middle of its (town) square, 

and are to burn with fire

the town and all its booty, completely, to YHVH your God; 

it shall be a mound for the ages,

you are not to build (on it) again!

broad place. The market-place.

a heap. Or, ‘mound.’ Heb. tel; Josh VI,17,26.

18 And there is not to cling to your hand anything from what is devoted-to-destruction,

in order that YHVH may turn from the flaming of his anger 

and show compassion to you, 

having-compassion on you and making you many, 

as he swore to your fathers.

cleave nought of the devoted thing to thy hand. The punishment of idolaters must not be made a profitable occupation. This prohibition was disregarded by the medieval Church. Both secular princes and the Inquisition confiscated the possession of heretics.  Persecution became more frequent because of the plunder that accompanied it (Guttmann).

Deut. XIII,13-19 has had a curious history, both in the Synagogue and in the Church.  In the Synagogue, it was maintained that this law was not to be carried out, even if only one mezuzah were found in the tainted city, as the destruction of the city would involve the cardinal sin of destroying the Name of God inscribed on that mezuzah; on XII,4.  Some Rabbis declare, ‘The case here described, viz.  the destruction of a city tainted with idolatry never occurred, nor was likely to occur.’ This section, they said in effect, was only added tot he Torah for the sake of deepening the understanding of the vital necessity of resisting all temptation to idolatry.  This view was not shared by the Church.  Deut. XIII,13-19 was embodied in the Canon Law; and the ghastly records of medieval persecution show that it was not construed as a mere warning against idolatry.  In the year 1097, when the Crusaders arrived at Pelagonia in Macedon, and learned that the inhabitants of the town were ‘heretics’, the paused in their pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, conquered the city, razed it to the ground, and put all its inhabitants to the sword.  Again, at the beginning of the 13th century.  Crusaders annihilated the 20,000 Albigenses, men, women and children, who had fled to Beziers, in Southern France.  Not one was spared. (Lea, History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, 1, pp. 107,154.)