Deuteronomy 13:6

6 "If your brother the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or your wife whom you love, or your friend who means as much to you as yourself, secretly tries to entice you to go and serve other gods, which you haven't known, neither you nor your ancestors -

Deuteronomy 13:6 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 13:6

If thy brother, the son of thy mother
A brother by mother's side, which is generally supposed to be the nearest relation, at least most out of question, so more liable to be regarded as being beloved:

or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom;
most dearly beloved by him, as indeed each of these relations are by a man, there being none nearer or dearer to him:

or thy friend, which [is] as thine own soul;
as dear to him as himself, and so strictly united in friendship, as if one soul dwelt in two bodies; such close friends were Jonathan and David, ( 1 Samuel 18:1 ) . Some Jewish writers think the father is not mentioned, because of the reverence of him, with which all later dealings with him obliged to would seem inconsistent; but the reverence of God is to be preferred to the reverence of parents; and besides, if such near relations that are here mentioned, than which there are none nearer, are not to be spared if guilty of the sin after warned against, then not a father, who is in the same transgression:

entice thee secretly;
when alone with him, which might be judged the most proper time to work upon him, there being none to oppose the enticer, or to assist the enticed; so Satan took the opportunity of Eve being alone when he attacked her with his temptation, and the same method is taken by his children:

saying, let me go and serve other gods which thou hast not known, thou
nor thy fathers;
not even their immediate ancestors, and so the calf was not of these gods; nor their more remote ancestors, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were no idolaters; nor even Terah, though he was one, yet the gods of the Canaanites and of the neighbouring nations, which seem to be here meant, at least principally, were such that he knew not. This circumstance may seem to carry in it an argument rather why they should not than why they should serve such gods; wherefore the words of the enticer seem to be only these,

let us go and serve other gods,
and what follows are the words of the Lord, descriptive of those gods, and so a dissuasive from serving them.

Deuteronomy 13:6 In-Context

4 You are to follow ADONAI your God, fear him, obey his mitzvot, listen to what he says, serve him and cling to him;

5 and that prophet or dreamer is to be put to death; because he urged rebellion against ADONAI your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from a life of slavery; in order to seduce you away from the path ADONAI your God ordered you to follow. This is how you are to rid your community of this wickedness.

6 "If your brother the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or your wife whom you love, or your friend who means as much to you as yourself, secretly tries to entice you to go and serve other gods, which you haven't known, neither you nor your ancestors -

7 gods of the peoples surrounding you, whether near or far away from you, anywhere in the world -

8 you are not to consent, and you are not to listen to him; and you must not pity him or spare him; and you may not conceal him.