Deuteronomy 13:12

If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities.—The only case of this kind is the case of Gibeah. We may fairly assume the abominations done there to have been connected with idolatry, from the allusions in Hosea 9:9; Hosea 10:9. But the outrage rather than the idolatry seems to have excited the indignation of Israel (see Judges 20, 21). It is noticeable that in the remonstrance with the Benjamites at Gibeah—(Judges 20:13): “Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel”—there seems to be an allusion to the language of this chapter in Deuteronomy 13:5; Deuteronomy 13:11.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:12-18 Here is the case of a city revolting from the God of Israel, and serving other gods. The crime is supposed to be committed by one of the cities of Israel. Even when they were ordered to preserve their religion by force, yet they were not allowed to bring others to it by fire and sword. Spiritual judgments under the Christian dispensation are more terrible than the execution of criminals; we have not less cause than the Israelites had, to fear the Divine wrath. Let us then fear the spiritual idolatry of covetousness, and the love of worldly pleasure; and be careful not to countenance them in our families, by our example or by the education of our children. May the Lord write his law and truth in our hearts, there set up his throne, and shed abroad his love!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

City was to keep jealous watch over city, as man over man. The clause "which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell in" significantly reminds them that the real ownership of their dwellings rested in the Lord (compare Leviticus 25:23), and that they, the mere tenants, must not allow His property to become a center of rebellion against His just authority.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12-18. Certain men, the children of Belial—lawless, designing demagogues (Jud 19:22; 1Sa 1:16; 25:25), who abused their influence to withdraw the inhabitants of the city to idol-worship.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities,.... A report concerning them, anyone of them:

which the Lord thy God had given thee to dwell there; which he had not only given them, but had put them into the possession of, and it was become their dwelling place, or was inhabited by Israelites; otherwise they were already given unto them, but did not inherit and inhabit them, and it might be possible that there might be some city or cities, at least for a time, which, though given them, were not inhabited by them, but by the Canaanites, and such cities this law did not concern: saying; as follows.

Geneva Study Bible

If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12–18 (13–19 in Heb.). Against a City seduced to Other Gods

Deuteronomy 13:12. in one of thy cities] So Hebrew. R. V. concerning is hardly possible (though cp. Psalm 92:12). As the words define not the place where the report has been heard, but the subject of the report, the guilty city itself; therefore either saying has been carelessly misplaced and should follow hear (tell) (cp. Joshua 22:11) or more probably the writer has designedly but awkwardly brought up the object of the law from the subordinate to the principal clause so as to make it prominent from the first: cp. Deuteronomy 31:29 (Dillm., Driv.). Translate: if thou shalt hear tell, that, in one of the cities, which … certain base fellows have gone out, etc.

cities] or towns; these social forms in Israel are much more frequent in D than tribes which under the settled conditions of the people towns gradually displaced; nearly always (exceptions Deuteronomy 19:1, Deuteronomy 20:16 and LXX of Deuteronomy 12:5) in these laws they are units of judiciary: here, Deuteronomy 19:1-13 (on the cities of refuge), Deuteronomy 21:2 ff. (with criminal responsibility for murders committed near them), Deuteronomy 21:19 ff., Deuteronomy 22:15 ff., Deuteronomy 22:24, Deuteronomy 25:8 : their representatives being their elders. The other phrase within thy gates is used of judiciary matters in Deuteronomy 16:18, Deuteronomy 17:2; Deuteronomy 17:8 (otherwise it is reserved for religious and charitable directions: see on Deuteronomy 12:12; Deuteronomy 12:21). But judges and officers are to be chosen according to thy tribes, Deuteronomy 16:18 (for tribes see also Deuteronomy 12:5; Deuteronomy 12:14).

giveth] is about to give.

Deuteronomy 13:13. Certain base fellows] Hebrew, men, sons of belial usually but doubtfully taken as worthlessness (as if a compound = no use), good-for-nothing fellows, Scot. ‘ne’er-do-weels.’ In early writings of the churlish, foul-mouthed, violent, drunken, unchaste, perjurers and abandoned criminals, but also of rebels against authority and religion as here (Jdg 19:22; Jdg 20:13; 1 Samuel 1:16; 1 Samuel 2:12; 1 Samuel 10:27; 1 Samuel 25:17; 1 Samuel 25:25; 2 Samuel 16:7; 2 Samuel 20:1; 1 Kings 21:10; 1 Kings 21:13). In D only here and Deuteronomy 15:9 (of a base word or thought), and nowhere else in Hexateuch.

are gone out] The vb. is used of going forth of set purpose to do something (Jdg 9:8; 1 Samuel 23:15) or, along with coming in, of all kinds of business (Deuteronomy 28:6, Deuteronomy 31:2). So here it might just mean deliberately and (of course) in public (opp. secretly, Deuteronomy 13:6); but the addition from the midst of thee conveys the suggestion of apostasy from Israel: they went out from us but they were not of us (1 John 2:19).

drawn away] Deuteronomy 13:5 : draw thee aside (q.v.).

Let us go and worship, etc.] See Deuteronomy 13:2; Deuteronomy 13:6.

Deuteronomy 13:14. inquire] See Deuteronomy 11:12, Deuteronomy 12:30, Deuteronomy 17:4; Deuteronomy 17:9, Deuteronomy 19:18; in this sense or a similar darash is used elsewhere in the Pent. only in Leviticus 10:16. Make search, ḥaḳar, investigate, in D only here; elsewhere of exploring a land and of examining a case (Job 29:16). Ask diligently, well, or thoroughly; ask, sha’al, like darash, to make inquest.

and the thing certain] or the story established or substantiated (Deuteronomy 17:4), or the case well-founded.

abomination] See on Deuteronomy 7:25.

Deuteronomy 13:15. thou shalt surely] i.e. the whole nation.

with the edge of] Hebrew, mouth of.

destroying it utterly] devoting or putting it to the ban or ḥerem. On this see Deuteronomy 2:34; it is the hardest form of the ḥerem which is here pronounced upon an apostate city of Israel.

and the cattle, etc.] Not in LXX; probably a later addition to the law and if so illustrative of the ease with which its varied forms and degrees of stringency (see on Deuteronomy 2:34) arose (but see Driver’s note here).

Deuteronomy 13:16. street] broad or open place. So far as they have been unearthed the streets of ancient Canaanite towns were as narrow as those of the villages of modern Palestine. But there was always a broad place, just inside the gate, where local courts and consultations were held.

every whit] a whole offering, holocaust. Hebrew kalîl usually synonymous with ‘olah (see Deuteronomy 12:6), but here used of the ḥerem; so in Jdg 20:40 of a city set on fire and its smoke: the whole offering of the city went up to heaven.

an heap] or mound. Heb., as Ar., tel (tell), in both languages also applied to the mounds on which living cities stand, their dead selves; the remains of their previous gradual decay or overthrow: all the cities standing on their mounds (Joshua 11:13, etc.).

Deuteronomy 13:17. devoted thing] The thing banned, as well as the banning, was called ḥerem. See on Deuteronomy 2:34, Deuteronomy 7:26, and cp. Joshua 6:18.

turn from the fierceness of his anger] So Joshua 7:26, after the ḥerem was fulfilled on Achan.

and shew thee mercy, etc.] Jeremiah 42:12.

multiply thee] Again this promise! Deuteronomy 1:10, Deuteronomy 6:3 (q.v.), Deuteronomy 7:13, etc.

Deuteronomy 13:18. The usual condition attached to promises in Deut.: possibly editorial.

right] Sam., LXX add and good.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 12-18. - A third ease supposed is that of the inhabitants of a city being seduced by wicked men into idolatry. In this case inquiry was to be made as to the fact; and if it was found to be so, the inhabitants of that city were to be put to the sword, all their property was to be burnt, and the city itself reduced to a heap; so should the anger of the Lord be averted from Israel, and he would do them good. Verse 12. - Hear in one of thy cities. The Hebrew phrase, "to hear in" (שָׁמַע בְּ). has sometimes the meaning of to overhear, as in Genesis 27:5; 1 Samuel 17:28; Job 15:8; sometimes it means simply to hear, as in 2 Samuel 19:36 [35]; in Job 26:14, it has the force of to hear of or concerning, though some think this questionable. This latter is apparently the meaning here: If thou hear concerning any of thy cities, etc. Baying. This introduces what is heard. Deuteronomy 13:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This was to be done, and all Israel was to hear it and fear, that no such wickedness should be performed any more in the congregation. The fear of punishment, which is given here as the ultimate end of the punishment itself, is not to be regarded as the principle lying at the foundation of the law, but simply, as Calvin expresses it, as "the utility and fruit of severity," one reason for carrying out the law, which is not to be confounded with the so-called deterrent theory, i.e., the attempt to deter from crime by the mode of punishing (see my Archologie, ii. p. 262).