Certain men, the children of Belial
Which signify either persons without a yoke, who have thrown off the yoke of God's law, and will not submit to it, or unprofitable ones, as wicked men be, both to God, themselves, and others:
are gone out from among you;
not locally, but with respect to their religious sentiments and practices, having separated themselves from the people of God, and from the service of the sanctuary, the true worship of God, and a profession of it, and given into the worship of idols:
and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city;
withdrawn them by the force of persuasion from the worship of the true God, and drawn them into idolatry:
saying, let us go and serve other gods;
unite as one man in the worship of the gods of the Gentiles:
which ye have not known;
this was not said by the children of Belial, but is added by the Lord by way of explanation, showing what gods they were that these men advised them to serve, and confirms the observation made on ( Deuteronomy 13:6 ) .