Deuteronomy 13:16

Gather all the possessions that belonged to the people who lived there and pile them up in the city plaza. Then burn the town and everything in it, as though it were an offering to Yahweh that would be completely burned on the altar. The ruins/ashes must stay there forever; the town must never be rebuilt.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.

In Context

15kill all the people in that town. And kill all their livestock, too. Destroy the town completely.

17None of you Israelis must take for yourselves [IDM] anything that Yahweh has said must be destroyed. But if you do what I say, Yahweh will stop being angry with you, and he will act mercifully toward you. And he will cause you to have many children/descendants, which is what he promised our ancestors that he would do.

Read all of Deuteronomy 13

Cross References

Exodus 22:19You must execute any person who has sex with an animal.

Joshua 6:21They killed [IDM] every living thing in the city—men and women, young people and old people, even cattle and sheep and donkeys.

Joshua 6:26At that time, Joshua warned the people, “Yahweh will curse/punish anyone who tries to rebuild this city, Jericho. When that person lays/builds its foundation, his oldest son will die. And when he finishes building the city wall and sets up its gates, his youngest son will die.”

Isaiah 17:1I received this message from Yahweh about Damascus the capital of Syria: “Listen carefully! Damascus will no longer be a city; it will be only a heap of ruins!

Jeremiah 49:2There will be a time when I will sound the battle-cry for their enemies to attack their capital city, Rabbah. Then it will become a heap of ruins, and all the nearby towns will be burned. Then the people of Israel will again possess the land that the Ammon people-group took away from them.

Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 13:13-18

12 If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, 13 Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; 14 Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; 15 Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with… Read the whole commentary →

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