(א) אֵ֣ת כׇּל־הַדָּבָ֗ר אֲשֶׁ֤ר אָנֹכִי֙ מְצַוֶּ֣ה אֶתְכֶ֔ם אֹת֥וֹ תִשְׁמְר֖וּ לַעֲשׂ֑וֹת לֹא־תֹסֵ֣ף עָלָ֔יו וְלֹ֥א תִגְרַ֖ע מִמֶּֽנּוּ׃ {פ}
(1) Be careful to observe only that which I enjoin upon you: neither add to it nor take away from it.
(2) If there appears among you a prophet or a dream-diviner and he gives you a sign or a portent,
או מופת OR A WONDER showing itself on the earth. — Nevertheless you shall not hearken unto him (although the sign or the wonder come to pass; cf. v. 3). But if you ask, why then does God give him the power to perform a sign? Scripture replies, (v. 4) “for the Lord your God trieth you, [to know whether you really love the Lord your God]” (Sifrei Devarim 84:1; cf. Sanhedrin 90a).
(3) saying, “Let us follow and worship another god”—whom you have not experienced—even if the sign or portent that he named to you comes true,
(4) do not heed the words of that prophet or that dream-diviner. For the LORD your God is testing you to see whether you really love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.
'כי מנסה ה' וגו, the only reason G’d allowed such people to possess what sounds like supernatural knowledge, is to test our faith, to see if we will heed the prohibition against using such sources of information and of tolerating such people as part of our culture. By choosing not to resort to the knowledge of such people of the future, etc., we accumulate merits in G’d’s books (compare Deut. 18,10-13). Refusing to believe such false prophets is in itself a good deed. Believing them is equivalent to believing in idolatry.
(5) Follow none but the LORD your God, and revere none but Him; observe His commandments alone, and heed only His orders; worship none but Him, and hold fast to Him.
אחרי ה' אלוקיכם תלכו, similarly phrased to והלכת בדרכיו in Deut. 28,9. You are not to seek out new paths which the “prophet” or “dreamer” employs to make you depart from the ways of the Lord.
AND HIS COMMANDMENTS SHALL YE KEEP. This refers to the Law of Moses.
(6) As for that prophet or dream-diviner, he shall be put to death; for he urged disloyalty to the LORD your God—who freed you from the land of Egypt and who redeemed you from the house of bondage—to make you stray from the path that the LORD your God commanded you to follow. Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst.
להדיחך מן הדרך, even though he had never asked you to abandon G’d, and had only presented an “updated” version of this same G’d’s commandments. He had, however, asked you to depart from “timeless Torah,” making G’d’s laws something that could be changed from time to time, thus making Moses the father figure of all prophets irrelevant. [my words. Ed.]
(7) If your brother, your own mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your closest friend entices you in secret, saying, “Come let us worship other gods”—whom neither you nor your fathers have experienced—
(8) from among the gods of the peoples around you, either near to you or distant, anywhere from one end of the earth to the other:
(10) but take his life. Let your hand be the first against him to put him to death, and the hand of the rest of the people thereafter.
ידך תהיה בו בראשונה THINE HAND SHALL BE FIRST UPON HIM [TO PUT HIM TO DEATH] — He who was to be seduced to idolatry has the duty to put him to death; if he did not die by his hand he must die by the hands of others, as it goes on to state “and afterwards the hands of all the people” (cf. Sifrei Devarim 89:8).
(11) Stone him to death, for he sought to make you stray from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
AND THOU SHALT STONE HIM. Scripture explains the manner of his death.
(12) Thus all Israel will hear and be afraid, and such evil things will not be done again in your midst.
(13) If you hear it said, of one of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you to dwell in,
Which was not given as a dwelling place, etc. I.e., to any individual, but rather any Israelite has the right to dwell there, because Jerusalem was not apportioned to the tribes.
(14) that some scoundrels from among you have gone and subverted the inhabitants of their town, saying, “Come let us worship other gods”—whom you have not experienced—
בני בליעל. WORTHLESS PERSONS — people that have thrown off the yoke of the Omnipresent (the word is taken in the sense of בְּלִי עוֹל, without a yoke) (Sifrei Devarim 93:2).
(15) you shall investigate and inquire and interrogate thoroughly. If it is true, the fact is established—that abhorrent thing was perpetrated in your midst—
AND THOU SHALT INQUIRE, AND MAKE SEARCH, AND ASK DILIGENTLY. The nature of “inquiry” and “making search” [with which the judges are to test witnesses] are explained in the words of our Rabbis. Now Scripture mentions these investigations [here] in the case of an apostate city, and also in the case of an idol-worshipper, but it does not mention them in the case of the false prophet or the inciter, because the prophet publicizes himself with his signs and wonders, and in the case of the inciter Scripture addresses itself to the incited party: but thou shalt surely kill him, and he [the incited party, is the one] who knows and bears witness, just as is stated, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him. But in the case of an apostate city and of an idol worshipper, which are deeds that reach us by means of report, Scripture mentions, with reference to them, inquiry and investigation [of the witnesses]. It was unnecessary to state this about the others liable to death because it is known by means of a kal vachomer. He states in the case of plotting witnesses, and the judges shall inquire diligently, because it cannot be determined which of the two conflicting groups of witnesses is telling the truth except after considerable investigation. Concerning the law, all cases are deduced from each other by means of a similarity of Scriptural expressions. And from all the combined expressions we derive the principle that we are to test the witnesses with seven inquiries, and examinations.
(16) put the inhabitants of that town to the sword and put its cattle to the sword. Doom it and all that is in it to destruction:
ואת בהמתה לפי חרב, to wipe out their memory as a form of vengeance on behalf of the G’d of Israel. The principle underlying the destruction of the belongings of these people is the same as that contained in G’d’s commandment to destroy every vestige of Amalek in order to obliterate any memory of that nation. (compare. Deut. 25,19) The prophet Samuel spelled this out prior to ordering King Sha-ul to carry out this commandment in Samuel I 15,3.
(17) gather all its spoil into the open square, and burn the town and all its spoil as a holocaust to the LORD your God. And it shall remain an everlasting ruin, never to be rebuilt.
כליל לה' אלוקיך, “as a holocaust (completely) to the Lord your G–d.” You are to do this in public so that everyone knows that your motivation is not to enrich yourself by doing so. [According to an opinion in the Talmud, there is no record of this legislation ever having to have been enforced. Ed.]
(18) Let nothing that has been doomed stick to your hand, in order that the LORD may turn from His blazing anger and show you compassion, and in His compassion increase you as He promised your fathers on oath—
למען ישוב ה' מחרון אף THAT THE LORD MAY TURN FROM THE FIERCENESS OF HIS WRATH — for as long as idol-worship exists in the world the fierce wrath of God is kindled against the world (Sifrei Devarim 96:3; Sanhedrin 111b; cf. Rashi on Genesis 9:32).
(19) for you will be heeding the LORD your God, obeying all His commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.
BARAITHA. Let your words be for the sake of Heaven, love Heaven, fear Heaven; be eager and rejoice in all the commandments.
GEMARA. What means [‘for the sake of Heaven’]? One should not act in such a way that people will say of him, ‘So-and-so does this publicly’. And do not speak of ‘love [Heaven]’ but ‘pursuit [of Heaven]’, as it is written, After the Lord your God shall ye walk. But is it possible for a man to walk after God seeing that it is written, For the Lord thy God is a devouring fire? [He does so] by benefiting scholars and righteous men [from his means]. ‘Be eager.’ Let your heart rejoice in beautifying every precept.
BARAITHA. Be like a split bottle and like a deep garden-bed.
GEMARA. What need is there for the Baraitha to repeat this? It was necessary because otherwise you might have thought that this refers [only] to words of Torah and as for the commandments it would be self-evident. On the contrary, it was necessary [to repeat it] here.
Ulla said: And how can you understand this proof? Was Jesus the Nazarene worthy of conducting a search for a reason to acquit him? He was an inciter to idol worship, and the Merciful One states with regard to an inciter to idol worship: “Neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him” (Deuteronomy 13:9). Rather, Jesus was different, as he had close ties with the government, and the gentile authorities were interested in his acquittal. Consequently, the court gave him every opportunity to clear himself, so that it could not be claimed that he was falsely convicted.
The Gemara asks: Why must the prohibition against an inciter be derived from here? It is written explicitly in that regard, in the verse concerning the inciter’s punishment: “And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more of any such wickedness as this is in your midst” (Deuteronomy 13:12). This is clearly a prohibition against inciting others to worship idols. Rather, the verse “neither let it be heard out of your mouth” is a prohibition against one who subverts an entire city to engage in idol worship; this prohibition is not stated elsewhere.
That He prohibited an incited one from being silent about something incriminating that he knows about the inciter that will bring about the punishment upon him. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying, "and you may not shield him" (Deuteronomy 13:9). And it appears in the explanation (Sifrei Devarim 89:4), "'And you may not shield him' - if you know something incriminating about him, you are not allowed to remain silent." (See Parashat Re'eh; Mishneh Torah, Foreign Worship and Customs of the Nations 5.)