Deuteronomy 17:2

"If there be found in the midst of thee, within any of thy gates which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that doeth that which is evil in the sight of Jehovah thy God, in transgressing his covenant, and hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it; then shalt thou inquire diligently; and, behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel, then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, who hath done this evil thing, unto thy gates, even the man or the woman; and thou shalt stone them to death with stones. At the mouth of two witness, or three witnesses, shall he that is to die be put to death. The hand of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So thou shalt put away the evil from the midst of thee."

In all ages, disloyalty to the central government has been counted as treason, incurring the most severe penalty. Here, the worship of some other God, other than Jehovah, was high treason, therefore meriting the punishment prescribed.

Note that the precautions taken here against false accusations have been honored, in some instances, throughout history. The requirement that the witnesses themselves should "cast the first stone," taking an active part in the execution of the condemned must have been a very effective deterrent against false charges, because as John Calvin put it:

"There are so many whose tongues are so slippery, not to say good for nothing, that they would boldly strangle a man with their words, when they would not dare to touch him with one of their fingers. It was an excellent remedy against false testimony, therefore, to refuse to admit the testimony of any man who was not ready to execute judgment with his own hand."[3]

"Unto thy gates ..." (Deuteronomy 17:5). "`Gates' here means the open spaces near the gates where the judicial proceedings took place (Nehemiah 8:1,3; Job 29:7)."[4] Thus, criminals were executed "outside the camp" in the period of the wanderings, and outside the city in later times. This was considered to be very significant among the Hebrews. Stephen was stoned outside the city (Acts 7:58), and even our Lord Jesus Christ "suffered without (outside) the camp" (Hebrews 13:12).

The stern commandments here to put idolaters to death is frowned upon by some whose misguided notions about "a God of love" cause them to criticize a passage such as this. It is true, of course, that Ezekiel wrote, "I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God" (Ezekiel 18:32).

"Capital punishment of idolaters was not a desirable thing per se, but it was enjoined out of regard to the welfare of the whole nation and the security of the central government. God was the King of Israel, and the worship of another God was simply high treason, thus deserving the most severe penalty."[5]