⁶Suppose your very own brother or sister secretly tempts you to do something wrong. Or your child or the wife you love tempts you. Or your closest friend does it. Suppose one of them says, “Let’s go and worship other gods.” But you and your people long ago hadn’t known anything about those gods before. ⁷They are the gods of the nations that are around you. Those nations might be near or far away. In fact, they might reach from one end of the land to the other. ⁸Don’t give in to those who are tempting you. Don’t listen to them. Don’t feel sorry for them. Don’t spare them or save them.

⁹You must certainly put them to death. You must be the first to throw stones at them. Then all of the people must do the same thing. ¹⁰Put them to death by throwing stones at them. They tried to turn you away from the Lord your God. He brought you out of Egypt. That’s the land where you were slaves.

¹¹After you kill those who tempted you, all of the people of Israel will hear about it. And they will be too scared to do an evil thing like that again.

¹²The Lord your God is giving you towns to live in. But suppose you hear something bad about one of those towns. ¹³You hear that evil men have appeared among you. They’ve tried to get the people of their town to do something wrong. They’ve said, “Let’s go and worship other gods.” But you haven’t known anything about those gods before. ¹⁴So you must question people. You must check the matter out carefully.

If it’s true, an evil thing has really happened among you. It’s something the Lord hates.

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