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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Deuteronomy 13:1-5

Here is, I. A very strange supposition, Deut. 13:1, 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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 13:1

If there arise among you a prophet ,.... A false prophet, a lying prophet, as the Targum of Jonathan; one that pretends to be a true prophet, and to be sent of God, and to come from him with a message from him, a new revelation or doctrine, or in his name, to foretell things to come; the former is chiefly meant. Such prophets did arise in Israel before the time of Christ, and have since arose under the Christian name; see 2 Peter 2:1 , or a dreamer of dreams ; the same with the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 13:2

And the sign and wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee ,.... The sign he promised to give, or the miracle he proposed to do, to show the reality of his mission, and the truth of his doctrine, which is performed, or seemingly performed, by legerdemain, by magic art, or by the help of the devil; which the Lord sometimes suffered for the trial of the faith and obedience of his people, and for the hardening of others in their unbelief, and which issues in their destruction; see 2... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 13:3

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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 13:4

Ye shall walk after the Lord your God ,.... As he has directed, according to the laws and rules which he has given, both with respect to their moral and civil conduct, and their religious worship of him; and so the Targum of Jonathan,"ye shall walk after the worship of the Lord your God:" and fear him, and keep his commandments ; fear to offend him, and so keep his commandments; or keep his commandments from or through fear; not a servile but a filial one, a reverential affection for... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 13:1

If there arise among you a prophet - Any pretending to have a Divine influence, so as to be able perfectly to direct others in the way of salvation; or a dreamer of dreams - one who pretends that some deity has spoken to him in the night-season; and giveth thee a sign, אות oth , what appears to be a miraculous proof of his mission; or a wonder, מופת mopheth , some type or representation of what he wishes to bring you over to: as some have pretended to have received a consecrated... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 13:3

The Lord your God proveth you - God permits such impostors to arise to try the faith of his followers, and to put their religious experience to the test; for he who experimentally knows God cannot be drawn away after idols. He who has no experimental knowledge of God, may believe any thing. Experience of the truths contained in the word of God can alone preserve any man from Deism, or a false religion. They who have not this are a prey to the pretended prophet, and to the dreamer of dreams. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 13:1

Verse 1 After having restrained the Israelites from the strange delusions of the Gentiles, Moses now forbids them from being too credulous if false teachers should arise from among themselves, and warns them diligently to beware of all novel inventions, and not to turn aside in the very least degree from the Law, at the instigation of any one. For there is peril to be apprehended, not only from professed and manifest enemies, or from foreign superstitions, but Satan plots also by means of... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 13:3

Verse 3 3.For the Lord your God proveth you. (Latin, tentat vos.) Whenever this word, which means to tempt, is applied to God, it is not used in a bad sense, for “to take by guile,” or, “to lay snares of deceit to entrap the unwary,” but only for “to prove or examine.” Now, God proves men’s hearts, not that He may learn what was before unknown, but to lay open what was before concealed. The expression, “to know,” therefore, refers to experimental knowledge only. The explanation of Augustine is... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 13:1

A prophet ( nabhi , נבָיִא ); one who speaks from God, an interpreter to men of what God reveals or suggests to him (of. for the meaning of the word, Exodus 7:1 with Exodus 4:16 ; also Jeremiah 15:19 ). Dreamer of dreams. Not by visions or immediate suggestion only, but also by means of dreams, did God communicate with men (cf. Numbers 12:6 ). The case supposed here, then, is that of one pretending to have had revelations from God through those media by which God was... read more

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