Deuteronomy 13:5
And that prophet or forger of dreams shall be slain: because he spoke to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of bondage: to make thee go out of the way, which the Lord thy God commanded thee: and thou shalt take away the evil out of the midst of thee.
Open Deuteronomy 13:5 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Propheta autem ille aut fictor somniorum interficietur : quia locutus est ut vos averteret a Domino Deo vestro, qui eduxit vos de terra Ægypti, et redemit vos de domo servitutis : ut errare te faceret de via, quam tibi præcepit Dominus Deus tuus : et auferes malum de medio tui.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ὁ προφήτης ἐκεῖνος ἢ ὁ τὸ ἐνύπνιον ἐνυπνιαζόμενος ἐκεῖνος ἀποθανεῖται· ἐλάλησεν γὰρ πλανῆσαί σε ἀπὸ Κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου τοῦ ἐξαγαγόντος σε ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου, τοῦ λυτρωσαμένου σε ἐκ τῆς δουλίας, ἐξῶσαί σε ἀπὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ ἧς ἐνετείλατό σοι Κύριος ὁ θεός σου πορεύεσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ· καὶ ἀφανιεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Deuteronomy 13:6
- וְהַנָּבִ֣יא הַה֡וּא א֣וֹ חֹלֵם֩ הַחֲל֨וֹם הַה֜וּא יוּמָ֗ת כִּ֣י דִבֶּר סָ֠רָה עַל יְהוָ֨ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֜ם הַמּוֹצִ֥יא אֶתְכֶ֣ם מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֗יִם וְהַפֹּֽדְךָ֙ מִבֵּ֣ית עֲבָדִ֔ים לְהַדִּֽיחֲךָ֙ מִן הַדֶּ֔רֶךְ אֲשֶׁ֧ר צִוְּךָ֛ יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ לָלֶ֣כֶת בָּ֑הּ וּבִֽעַרְתָּ֥ הָרָ֖ע מִקִּרְבֶּֽךָ
Haydock's commentary
Forger. Hebrew, "dreamer," to whom God reveals his secrets in the night, as he does to the prophet while he is awake.
Slain. Philo says, without any trial or delay; but the Rabbins allow that, although the impostor was not to receive an admonition, no ignorance being able to excuse him, as in other cases, he was to be brought before the Sanhedrim, at Jerusalem, and strangled. See Luke xiii. 33. The Jews, it is thought, condemned our Saviour on the plea that he was a false prophet, Matthew xxvi. 57. They commonly required before this condemnation, that a person should have assumed the character of a prophet, and not barely that he should have performed some wonderful work by his ingenuity. For if he only did the latter, and thereby endeavoured to withdraw the people from the service of the true God, he was punished as a seducer. They also refused to condemn one who had foretold evils, if they did not take place, because God, being merciful, might have pardoned those who did penance, (Calmet) as was the case with Jonas and the Ninivites. (Haydock)
But those who taught or did any thing contrary to the law, in quality of prophets, were in danger of condemnation, unless their great reputation might screen them from suspicion. Thus Elias offered sacrifice on Mount Carmel, without giving offence, 3 Kings xviii. 23. If a true prophet bore witness to another, the latter might also claim respect. (Calmet)
Yet though St. John the Baptist had repeatedly commended Jesus Christ, the Jews did not hesitate to call him a seducer, and to put him to death. (Haydock)
Read on
"The evil one," (Syriac,) 1 Corinthians v. 13.
Where a note speaks of the Jewish people, the Church teaches that the Passion cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).
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 The Epistles of Cyprian, Epistle XXXIX
5. The Lord cries aloud, saying, “Hearken not unto the words of the false prophets, for the visions of their own hearts deceive them. They speak, but not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say to them that despise the word of the Lord, Ye shall have peace.” They are now offering peace who have not peace themselves. They are promising to bring back and recall the lapsed into the Church, who themselves have departed from the Church. There is one God, and Christ is one, and there is one Church, and one chair founded upon the rock by the word of the Lord. Another altar cannot be constituted nor a new priesthood be made, except the one altar and the one priesthood. Whosoever gathereth elsewhere, scattereth. Whatsoever is appointed by human madness, so that the divine disposition is violated, is adulterous, is impious, is sacrilegious. …
St Augustine Reply to Faustus the Manichæan, Faustus willing to believe not only that the Jewish but that all Gentile prophets wrote of Christ, if it should be proved; but he would none the less insist upon rejecting their superstitions. Augustin maintains that all Moses wrote is of Christ, and that his writings must be either accepted or rejected as a whole
5. Or shall we take another favorite passage of yours: "They shall see their life hanging, and shall not believe their life?" You insert the words "on a tree," which are not in the original. Nothing can be easier than to show that this has no reference to Christ. Moses is uttering dire threatenings in case the people should depart from his law, and says among other things that they would be taken captive by their enemies, and would be expecting death day and night, having no confidence in the life allowed them by their conquerors, so that their life would hang in uncertainty from fear of impending danger. This passage will not do, we must try others. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Riparius
3. You may perhaps in your secret thoughts find fault with me for thus assailing a man behind his back. I will frankly admit that my indignation overpowers me; I cannot listen with patience to such sacrilegious opinions. I have read of the javelin of Phinehas, of the harshness of Elijah, of the jealous anger of Simon the zealot, of the severity of Peter in putting to death Ananias and Sapphira, and of the firmness of Paul who, when Elymas the sorcerer withstood the ways of the Lord, doomed him to lifelong blindness. There is no cruelty in regard for God’s honour. …