6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife of your heart, or the friend who is as dear to you as your life, working on you secretly says to you, Let us go and give worship to other gods, strange to you and to your fathers;
7 Gods of the peoples round about you, near or far, from one end of the earth to the other;
8 Do not be guided by him or give attention to him; have no pity on him or mercy, and give him no cover;
9 But put him to death without question; let your hand be the first stretched out against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.
10 Let him be stoned with stones till he is dead; because it was his purpose to make you false to the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Deuteronomy 13
Commentary on Deuteronomy 13 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 13
Moses is still upon that necessary subject concerning the peril of idolatry. In the close of the foregoing chapter he had cautioned them against the peril that might arise from their predecessors the Canaanites. In this chapter he cautions them against the rise of idolatry from among themselves; they must take heed lest any should draw them to idolatry,
Deu 13:1-5
Here is,
Deu 13:6-11
Further provision is made by this branch of the statute against receiving the infection of idolatry from those that are near and dear to us.
Deu 13:12-18
Here the case is put of a city revolting from its allegiance to the God of Israel, and serving other gods.
Lastly, Though we do not find this law put in execution in all the history of the Jewish church (Gibeah was destroyed, not for idolatry, but immorality), yet for the neglect of the execution of it upon the inferior cities that served idols God himself, by the army of the Chaldeans, put it in execution upon Jerusalem, the head city, which, for is apostasy from God, was utterly destroyed and laid waste, and lay in ruins seventy years. Though idolaters may escape punishment from men (nor is this law in the letter of it binding now, under the gospel), yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgements. The New Testament speaks of communion with idolaters as a sin which, above any other, provokes the Lord to jealousy, and dares him as if we were stronger than he, 1 Co. 10:21, 22.