12 “If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there, 13 that certain ^hworthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, 14 then you shall inquire and make search and ask ⁱdiligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you, 15 you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction,¹ all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. 16 You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and ^jburn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a ^kheap forever. It shall not be built again. 17 ^lNone of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, ^mthat the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, ⁿas he swore to your fathers, 18 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, ^okeeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

2 ^k“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, ^lin transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or ^mthe sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, ⁿwhich I have forbidden, 4 and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire ^odiligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you ^pshall stone that man or woman to death with stones. 6 ^qOn the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. 7 ^rThe hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So ^syou shall purge¹ the evil² from your midst.

12 The man who ^wacts presumptuously by not obeying the priest ^xwho stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So ^syou shall purge the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people ^yshall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.

18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, 20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 ^mThen all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. ⁿSo you shall purge the evil from your midst, ^oand all Israel shall hear, and fear.