29 When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go to dispossess, and you dispossess them and live in their land, 30 Be watchful that you are not ensnared into following them after they have been destroyed before you and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? We will do likewise. 31 You shall not do so to the Lord your God, for every abominable thing which the Lord hates they have done for their gods. For even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods.
32 Whatever I command you, be watchful to do it; you shall not add to it or diminish it.
1 IF A prophet arises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 And the sign or the wonder he foretells to you comes to pass, and if he says, Let us go after other gods--gods you have not known--and let us serve them, 3 You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being. 4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and [reverently] fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and cling to Him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has talked rebellion and turning away from the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage; that man has tried to draw you aside from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So shall you put the evil away from your midst.
6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own life entices you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods--gods you have not known, you nor your fathers, 7 Of the gods of the peoples who are round about you, near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other-- 8 You shall not give consent to him or listen to him; nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him. 9 But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. 10 And you shall stone him to death with stones, because he has tried to draw you away from the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 And all Israel shall hear and [reverently] fear, and shall never again do any such wickedness as this among you.
12 If you hear it said in one of your cities which the Lord your God has given you in which to dwell 13 That certain base fellows have gone out from your midst and have enticed away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods--gods you have not known-- 14 Then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it is true and certain that such an abominable thing has been done among you, 15 You shall surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly and all who are in it and its beasts with the edge of the sword. 16 And you shall collect all its spoil into the midst of its open square and shall burn the city with fire with every bit of its spoil [as a whole burnt offering] to the Lord your God. It shall be a heap [of ruins] forever; it shall not be built again. 17 And nothing of the accursed thing shall cling to your hand, so that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger, and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as He swore to your fathers, 18 If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you this day, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.