Deuteronomy 29:18

¹⁵looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled by it,

¹⁶Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them; ¹⁷and the LORD’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD gives you.

¹If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, ²and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let’s go after other gods” (which you have not known) “and let’s serve them,” ³you 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 heart and with all your soul. ⁴You shall walk after the LORD your God, fear him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice. You shall serve him, and cling to him. ⁵That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which the LORD your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

⁶If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods”—which you have not known, you, nor your fathers; ⁷of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth— ⁸you shall not consent to him nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him; ⁹but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. ¹⁰You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ¹¹All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more wickedness like this among you.

¹²If you hear about one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell there, that ¹³certain wicked fellows have gone out from among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods,” which you have not known, ¹⁴then you shall inquire, investigate, and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination was done among you, ¹⁵you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, with all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.

¹⁵Therefore the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

¹²Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness,

⁴They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

²³For I see that you are in the poison of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”

¹²Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;

²If there is found among you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, a man or woman who does that which is evil in the LORD your God’s sight in transgressing his covenant, ³and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the stars of the sky, which I have not commanded, ⁴and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel, ⁵then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to your gates, even that same man or woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones. ⁶At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. ⁷The hands of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from among you.