Deuteronomy 13:4

_AND THE SIGN OR THE WONDER COME TO PASS, WHEREOF HE SPAKE UNTO THEE, SAYING, LET US GO AFTER OTHER GODS, WHICH THOU HAST NOT KNOWN, AND LET US SERVE THEM;_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-5 Moses had cautioned against the peril that might arise from the Canaanites. Here he cautions against the rise of idolatry among themselves. It is needful for us to be well acquainted with the truths and precepts of the Bible; for we may expect to be proved by temptations of evil under the appearance of good, of error in the guise of truth; nor can any thing rightly oppose such temptations, but the plain, express testimony of God's word to the contrary. And it would be a proof of sincere affection for God, that, notwithstanding specious pretences, they should not be wrought upon the forsake God, and follow other gods to serve them....

EXPOSITION IDOLATERS AND ENTICERS TO IDOLATRY TO BE PUT TO DEATH. DEUTERONOMY 13:1 The case supposed here is that of one professing to have supernatural intelligence, who should, by giving a sign or a wonder, endeavor to draw away the people to idolatry. Such a one was to be put to death. DEUTERONOMY 13:1 A PROPHET (_nabhi_,_ _נבָיִא); one who speaks from God, an interpreter to men of what God reveals or suggests to him (of. for the meaning of the word,...

YE SHALL WALK AFTER THE LORD YOUR GOD,.... As he has directed, according to the laws and rules which he has given, both with respect to their moral and civil conduct, and their religious worship of him; and so the Targum of Jonathan, "ye shall walk after the worship of the Lord your God:'' AND FEAR HIM, AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS; fear to offend him, and so keep his commandments; or keep his commandments from or through fear; not a servile but a filial one, a reverential affection for him; this is the whole duty of man, Ecclesiastes 12:13, AND OBEY HIS VOICE; in his word, or by his prophets and ministers: it may very well be understood of the voice of Christ, the Angel that went before them, whose voice they were continually to hearken to and obey,...

FEAR (_ See Scofield) - (Psalms 19:9). _...

9. WARNINGS AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS AND THEIR PUNISHMENT CHAPTER 13 _ 1. The first case: The false prophet and dreamer (Deuteronomy 13:1)_ 2. The second case: Temptation to idolatry from blood-relations (Deuteronomy 13:6) 3. The third case: The apostasy of a city (Deuteronomy 13:12) Three cases are mentioned. The false prophet or a dreamer of dreams, who confirms his claims by a sign or a miracle, yet whose aim is to seduce to idolatry, is to be put to death. False teaching, which leads from God, is an abomination. It results finally in the most awful moral corruption. A false prophet may do signs and wonders to prove thereby that what he teaches is truth. Si

DEUTERONOMY 12:29 TO DEUTERONOMY 13:1. Yahwism must be kept free from all taint of Canaanite heathenism when Israel has entered Canaan. The danger would arise from the ancient belief that everyone should worship the god of the country in which he resides. D is an uncompromising Yahwist. DEUTERONOMY 12:32 TO DEUTERONOMY 13:18. Three classes of seducers to idolatry to be put to death. (_a)_ The false prophet (Deuteronomy 12:32 to...

CLEAVE. Compare Deuteronomy 10:20....

1 5 (2 6 in Heb.). Against the Prophet of Other Gods 1. _If there arise in the midst of thee_ So Deuteronomy 19:15-16 also Sg. Cp. the synonymous _if there be found in the midst of thee_Deuteronomy 17:2; Deuteronomy 18:10; Deuteronomy 21:1; Deuteronomy 22:22; Deuteronomy 24:7. Steuern takes this as characteristic of the Pl. document, but like the other it occurs with the Sg. address; and we have seen

_VER._ 1-4. _IF THERE ARISE AMONG YOU A PROPHET,_ &C.— The divinity of their religion, and its peculiar opposition to idolatry, having been fully shewn, Moses now proceeds to put the strongest case possible; acquainting them, that if any _prophet or dreamer of dreams,_ any person pretending to supernatural inspiration, should _give them a sign or a wonder,_ should predict or perform any thing extraordinary, and make that the ground of drawing them aside from the worship of their God to that of idols, they should utterly disregard any such sign or wonder, nor be at all influenced by it to hearken to the words of the deluder; assured that he could not be commissioned by God, who, being always the same, can never contradict himself: and in this confidence, though perhaps they might not be able to discover the mode of his deceit, or the method by which he was able either to foretel or to per...