Deuteronomy 13:15
Thou shalt forthwith kill the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, and shalt destroy it and all things that are in it, even the cattle.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- statim percuties habitatores urbis illius in ore gladii, et delebis eam ac omnia quæ in illa sunt, usque ad pecora.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἀναιρῶν ἀνελεῖς πάντας τοὺς κατοικοῦντας ἐν τῇ γῇ ἐκείνῃ ἐν φόνῳ μαχαίρας, ἀναθέματι ἀναθεματιεῖτε αὐτὴν καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Deuteronomy 13:16
- הַכֵּ֣ה תַכֶּ֗ה אֶת יֹֽשְׁבֵ֛י הָעִ֥יר ההוא לְפִי חָ֑רֶב הַחֲרֵ֨ם אֹתָ֧הּ וְאֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּ֛הּ וְאֶת בְּהֶמְתָּ֖הּ לְפִי חָֽרֶב
Haydock's commentary
Even the cattle. Nothing at all must be spared. Yet the Rabbins and some who argue that penal laws must be restrained as much as possible, exempt the women, and boys under thirteen years of age, and understand this law only of the central cities, ver. 13. If the city was seduced by one man, or by women, or by people of a different tribe, the culprit was only to be stoned, and the Sanhedrim had to take cognizance of the whole affair. If many cities joined in the idolatry, or if any of them were cities of refuge, &c., they were not included. (Selden, Syned. iii. 5.; Grotius)
But these limitations seem visibly to contradict the law. The goods of the innocent were involved in the common ruin, that they might learn to make all possible resistance to the introduction of so abominable a crime; and those of the guilty were destroyed wherever they were found. (Calmet)
But the persons of those who fled away, to shew their disapprobation, and denounce the attempt of their brethren, (Haydock) would no doubt be saved. (Calmet)
If they continued among them, their indolence or connivance deserved punishment. (Haydock)
Grotius (Jur. ii. 15) maintains, that the magistrate is authorized by the law of nature to punish those who deny the existence of God or his Providence, as these errors strike at the root of all society.
[Ver. 16.] For the Lord, as a victim of expiation, and to manifest your zeal for the honour of the only true God.
No more. Septuagint, "it shall be uninhabited." The Rabbins are so exact, as to entertain a doubt whether the place might even be used as a garden. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Cyprian Treatise XI, Chapter V
In Deuteronomy: “But if thy brother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or thy wife which is in thy bosom, or thy friend which is the fellow of thine own soul, should ask thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, the gods of the nations, thou shalt not consent unto him, and thou shalt not hearken unto him, neither shall thine eye spare him, neither shalt thou conceal him, declaring thou shalt declare concerning him. Thine hand shall be upon him first of all to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people; and they shall stone him, and he shall die, because he hath sought to turn thee away from the Lord thy God.” And again the Lord speaks, and says, that neither must a city be spared, even though the whole city should consent to idolatry: “Or if thou shalt hear in one of the cities which the Lord thy God shall give thee, to dwell there, saying, Let us go and serve ot …