Deuteronomy 13:12

12 The LORD your God is giving you towns to live in. But suppose you hear something bad about one of those towns.

Deuteronomy 13:12 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 13:12

If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities
A report concerning them, anyone of them:

which the Lord thy God had given thee to dwell there;
which he had not only given them, but had put them into the possession of, and it was become their dwelling place, or was inhabited by Israelites; otherwise they were already given unto them, but did not inherit and inhabit them, and it might be possible that there might be some city or cities, at least for a time, which, though given them, were not inhabited by them, but by the Canaanites, and such cities this law did not concern: saying; as follows.

Deuteronomy 13:12 In-Context

10 Put them to death by throwing stones at them. They tried to turn you away from the LORD your God. He brought you out of Egypt. That's the land where you were slaves.

11 After you kill those who tempted you, all of the people of Israel will hear about it. And they will be too scared to do an evil thing like that again.

12 The LORD your God is giving you towns to live in. But suppose you hear something bad about one of those towns.

13 You hear that evil men have appeared among you. They've tried to get the people of their town to do something wrong. They've said, "Let's go and worship other gods." But you haven't known anything about those gods before.

14 So you must question people. You must check the matter out carefully. If it's true, an evil thing has really happened among you. It's something the LORD hates.