Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
words
דִּבְרֵי֙div.Rei
H1697
a word · noun, common masculine plural construct
prophet
הַנָּבִ֣יאha.na.Vi'
H5030
a prophet or (generally) inspired man · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
dreamer
חוֹלֵ֥םcho.Lem
H2492
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
dreams
הַחֲל֖וֹםha.cha.Lom
H2472
a dream · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֤הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God
אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶם֙'e.lo.hei.Khem
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
proveth
מְנַסֶּ֞הme.na.Seh
H5254
to test · verb, piel active participle, masculine singular absolute
know
לָדַ֗עַתla.Da.'at
H3045
to know (properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
ye
הֲיִשְׁכֶ֤םha.yish.Khem
H3426
there is or are (or any other form of the verb to be · interrogative particle + cardinal number, both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
love
אֹֽהֲבִים֙'o.ha.Vim
H157
to have affection for (sexually or otherwise) · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֣הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God
אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֔ם'e.lo.hei.Khem
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
heart
לְבַבְכֶ֖םle.vav.Khem
H3824
the heart (as the most interior organ) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
soul
נַפְשְׁכֶֽםnaf.she.Khem
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 8:2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee,…
Psalms 66:10 For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.
1 Corinthians 11:19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Matthew 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they sh…
2 Thessalonians 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 13:1-5
Here is, I. A very strange supposition, Deu 13:1, Deu 13:2. 1. It is strange that there should arise any among themselves, especially any pretending to vision and prophecy, who should instigate them to go and serve other gods. Was it possible that any who had so much knowledge of the methods of divine revelation as to be able to personate a prophet should yet have so little knowledge of the divine nature and will as to go himself and entice his neighbours after other gods? Could an Israelite ever be guilty of such impiety? Could a man of sense ever be guilty of such absurdity? We see it in our own day, and therefore may think it the less strange; multitudes that profess both learning and rel…
Thou shall not hearken to the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams,.... Even though he does give the sign, and work the wonder; for it might be reasonably concluded there must be fallacy in him, and that neither he nor his miraculous sign could come from God, who would never send a person to enable him to do signs and wonders, to persuade men to believe and act contrary to a former declaration of his mind and will; to break a plain law of his, as in Deuteronomy 5:7, this would be to contradict and deny himself; whatever therefore is contrary to a known law or established doctrine, either of law or Gospel, let it come from whom it will, or pretend to be confirmed by miracles, is n…
Deuteronomy 13:1-4
1. If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
l. Quum surrexerit in medio tui propheta, vel qui somnium somniabit, et dederit tibi signum vel portentum.
2. And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
2. Eveneritque tibi signum et portentum quod dixerat tibi, dicendo, Eamus post deos alienos quos non nosti, et colamus eos.
3. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart, and…
The Church Fathers
He permits us to be tested not in order that he, for whom nothing lies hidden, might know but in order that he might make us know the extent of our progress in love for him. According to this same mode of speech our Lord also says that he does not know the day or the hour of the end of the world. What can there be that he does not know? He was concealing it from the disciples for their benefit, and he said that he did not know it because he was causing them not to know by concealing it.
Take, for instance, the text "God tempts no one": it cannot be understood as meaning every kind of temptation but only of a particular kind which God doesn't tempt anyone with. Otherwise that other text, "the Lord your God is tempting you," would be false. Otherwise too we might be denying that Christ is God or that the gospel is not telling the truth when we read that he questioned one of the disciples, "tempting him, but he himself knew what he was going to do." You see, there is a temptation that leads to sin, and in that way God tempts no one. Then there is a temptation or testing that proves the quality of faith, and that way even God is prepared to tempt people. In the same sort of way, when we hear "whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit," we shouldn't take it as meaning every kind of blaspheming, just as in the other case we don't understand every kind of tempting.
Hence [Montanus] richly deserved that it also ought to be said of him and his writings: "If there rises in the midst of you a prophet, you shall not hear the words of that prophet." And why not? "For," it is said, "the Lord your God tries you whether you love him or not." By virtue of these many convincing examples9 from church history and others of the same kind, we must clearly perceive and, according to the rules of Deuteronomy, fully understand that if at any time a teacher of the church deviates from the faith, divine providence permits this to happen in order to test and to try us, "whether we love God or not with all our heart and all our soul." Since this is so, we may say that a true and genuine Catholic is the person who loves the truth of God, the church and the body of Christ. [Such a person] does not put anything above divine religion and the Catholic faith—neither the authority, nor the affection, nor the genius, nor the eloquence nor the philosophy of any other human being.
Dictionary and topics
Divination — Of false prophets (Deut. 18:10, 14; Micah 3:6, 7, 11), of necromancers (1 Sam. 28:8), of the Philistine priests and diviners (1 Sam. 6:2), of Balaam (Josh. 13:22). Three kinds of divination are…
Dreams · False prophets: Not to be regarded in — False prophets: Not to be regarded in
Love · OF MAN FOR GO — OF MAN FOR GO
Love To God · God tries the sincerity of — God tries the sincerity of
Miracles Through Evil Agents · Not to be regarded — Not to be regarded
Prophecy · How tested — How tested
Prophets · .Warnings to — .Warnings to
Prophets, False · Made use of by God to prove Israel — Made use of by God to prove Israel
Punishment · .For prophesying falsely, or propagating false doctrines — .For prophesying falsely, or propagating false doctrines
Teachers · .Admonition against — .Admonition against
Temptation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Deuteronomy 13:3 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Prophets who tried to lead Israel away from the one true God were guilty of treason, which carried the death penalty. No other religion insisted on exclusive worship of their national gods; consequently, such harsh penalties for the worship of competing deities were unknown elsewhere in the ancient Near East.
13:1 God performed signs and miracles to induce amazement and faith in those who witnessed them (see 6:22). False prophets and magicians were able to replicate these feats to a degree and thus sometimes led God’s people astray (see Exod 7:11, 22; 8:7).
Rashi on Deuteronomy 13:2
ונתן אליך אות [IF THERE ARISE AMONG YOU A PROPHET …] AND GIVETH THEE A SIGN that will show itself in the heavens, just as it is stated in the case of Gideon who spoke to the angel, (Judges 6:17) “[If now I found grace in your sight], then show me a sign (אות)”, and then it further states, (Judges 6:39) “[let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece;] let it be dry only upon the fleece [and upon all the ground let there be dew]”.
או מופת OR A WONDER showing itself on the earth. — Nevertheless you shall not hearken unto him (although the sign or the wonder come to pass; cf. v. 3). But if you ask, why then does God give him the power to perform a sign? Scripture replies, (v. 4) “fo…
