Deuteronomy 13:9, commentary and pictures

The law required that one who secretly urged another Israelite to serve other gods and worship idols be put to death by stoning without pity or sparing, with the witness who heard the enticement casting the first stone and then the hand of all the people joining in the execution. The enticer was treated as a traitor whose influence would destroy souls and lead the whole nation to destruction, so loyalty to God required giving evidence and enforcing the sentence to restrain evil and warn others. The command not to kill forbids no such divinely prescribed execution, and carrying out its judicial penalty breaks no exception in that commandment, for the hands that punish carry out its sentence rather than transgress it. Death by stoning at the hand of the people or magistrate was attached not to one precept alone but to violation of the first and second commandments and to most of the moral law, including murder, adultery, blasphemy, dishonoring parents, and Sabbath-breaking. That civil penalty ceased with the Jewish polity and must not be confused with the real penalty of the moral law, the wages of sin to be inflicted by the great Lawgiver at the final judgment, and it gives Christians living under no theocracy no authority to control conscience or kill, but only to seek the sinner's repentance while punishment belongs to the true magistrate and to God.

Words and Historical Setting

The law allowed no pity and no sparing for the enticer, but required his death by stoning, with the hand of the witness or accuser who heard the evidence first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the people. The offense was tempting another Israelite to idolatry by saying let us go and serve other gods, including the service of sun-gods, and such idolatry was punishable by death. Violation of the commands prohibiting idolatry brought death upon the offender, just as violation of the commands on the Sabbath, adultery, blasphemy, and honoring father and mother did. The warning against sun-worship was given in B.C. 1451, when the universal idolatrous worship was worship of the sun, whose special time was Sunday, the wild solar holiday.

The verse belongs to the good test and warning in Deuteronomy 13 by which to try prophets, so that even a prophet who works signs and wonders must be tested by the law of God, and any prophet who leads away from that law is false. The larger passage of Deuteronomy 13:1-18 lays down directions for putting to death those accused of sorcery, which the Jewish leaders hoped to use to convict the apostles and have them killed.

The statute was a special enactment given soon after Sinai, chosen as the most definite of many texts of similar import. It belonged to the added law made known by the hand of Moses and written in a book, not to the holy law made known by God himself and written on tables of stone as His covenant, and its function in that added law was to point out the temporal punishment of death to be inflicted for transgression of the law of God. For a time the Ten Commandments were incorporated into the civil code of the Hebrew nation under its theocratic government with God as the nation's head, and the death inflicted under this verse was the penalty attached to them as part of that national constitution, to be inflicted by the magistrate and by the hand of the civil magistrate. That civil penalty was distinct from the real penalty of God's moral law, which God reserves to enforce.

In that theocratic order the enticer was treated as a traitor whose influence could destroy souls, and loyalty to God required giving evidence and enforcing the law under God's direction. The promotion of idolatry was treated as a threat that could lead the whole nation to destruction, and its punishment was meant to restrain evil and warn the young.

Doctrine and Present Application

The command not to kill does not forbid every taking of human life, for here the person bringing the charge was divinely directed to begin the execution and the people were then to join in it. The command looks like a direct reversal of Thou shalt not kill, yet it grants no exception and does not relax that commandment. Those who lay hands on the enticer to put him to death do not break the sixth commandment but carry out its penalty, foreshadowing the execution of the penalty to be effected by Christ after that dispensation, and a judicial sentence to execute does not cancel the individual duty not to kill. To call execution of the penalty the same as transgression would make it impossible to maintain any law except through wrong and would make God unrighteous in taking vengeance, as is recognized also where the Sabbath-breaker was stoned as the Lord directed.

The death penalty by stoning at the hand of the people or civil magistrate was attached to violation of the first and second commandments and to most of the precepts of the moral law, including murder, smiting parents, blasphemy, disobedience to parents, covetousness, theft, adultery, dishonoring father and mother, and Sabbath-breaking. It was common to all the Decalogue and not peculiar to the fourth commandment, so the fourth cannot be called bondage on account of that penalty while the other nine are kept. The sameness of the penalty proves the Sabbath is of the same moral nature as those other laws and not a merely positive or ceremonial law distinguished by its penalty.

That death inflicted under this verse was the penalty attached to the ten commandments as incorporated for the time into the civil code of the Hebrew nation, to be inflicted by the magistrate as punishment against the national constitution. That civil penalty ceased when the Jewish polity ceased, and its infliction was suspended by the Saviour's decision that those without sin should cast the first stone. It must not be confounded with the real penalty of the moral law of God, the wages of sin, to be inflicted by the great Lawgiver, which was not set aside and still makes death the penalty for violation of the law of God, shadowing forth the final retribution of the ungodly when One without sin will yet arise to punish men and the hailstones of His wrath desolate the earth. The civil penalty was distinct from the penalty of God's moral law which God reserves to enforce at the final judgment, so a person executed under that civil regulation still had to answer to God for the crime, and Christ did not weaken the precept that had been violated.

Breaking the first two precepts brings the transgressor under the law's curse, but the death penalty does not remove the obligation to keep the command. The command to have no other gods and the commands on idolatry, the Sabbath, adultery, blasphemy, and honoring parents remain binding although their violation was punishable by death. This national law does not authorize Christians to control another person's conscience, because they are not living under a theocracy with God as the nation's head where the enticer was a traitor whose influence could destroy souls and loyalty required giving evidence and enforcing the law under God's direction. Every believer is not a magistrate to carry out the killing but can only seek the sinner's repentance, while inflicting punishment belongs to the true magistrate. God's penal laws take hold of presumptuous sinners, not sins of ignorance, so punishment is not to be expected until the law is universally acknowledged, and if God has annexed death to breaking the first commandment for worshiping a strange god the penalty is just and holding the command is not dangerous. The execution of one who entices others to idolatry is placed under the Mosaic law, and that Mosaic penalty for idolatry and Sabbath-breaking is invoked by those who would argue for executing people who violate moral law.