Caption: "False prophets must be slain, and idolatrous cities must be destroyed."
Bishop Richard Challoner's Version, Or Revision, of the Douai-Rheims Version. (Although often called the Douai-Rheims Version, it is not, but is an entirely new version). I have updated the text to the contemporary English. See
«[1] If there arises in your midst a prophet or one that says he has dreamed a dream, and he foretells a sign and a wonder, [2] that comes to pass, which he spoke, and he say to you: "Let us go and follow strange gods," which you knew not, "and let us serve them;" [3] you shall not hear the words of that prophet or dreamer: for the Lord your God is thereby putting you to the test, that it may made manifest whether you love Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, or not.
[4] Follow the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and hear His voice: Him you shall serve, and to Him you shall cleave.
[5] And that prophet or forger of dreams must be killed: because he spoke to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of bondage: to make you go out of the way, which the Lord your God commanded you: and thus shall you take away the evil out of your midst.
[6] If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or daughter, or your wife that is in your bosom, or your friend, whom you love as your own soul, would persuade you secretly, saying: "Let us go, and serve strange gods," which you knew not, nor your fathers, [7] of all the nations round about, that are near or afar off, from one end of the earth to the other, [8] do not consent to him, do not hear him, neither let your eye spare him to pity and conceal him, [9] but you shall presently put him to death.
Let your hand be first upon him, and afterwards you, the hands of all the people.
[10] With stones shall he be stoned to death: because he would have withdrawn you from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage: [11] so that, all Israel hearing, may fear, and may do no more any thing like this.
[12] If in one of your cities, which the Lord your God shall give you to dwell in, you hear some say: [13] Wicked people have broken with you, and their entire communities, villages, towns, cities, have seceded, and have said: "Let us go, and serve strange gods," which you know not: [14] Inquire carefully and diligently, the truth of the thing by looking well into it, and if you find that which is said, to be true, and that this abomination has been really committed, [15] you shall forthwith kill the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, and shall destroy it and all things that are in it, even the cattle.
[16] And all the household goods that are there, you shalt gather together in the midst of the streets thereof, and shall burn them with the city itself, so as to consume all for the Lord your God, and that it be a heap for ever: it shall be built no more.
[17] Thus shall it be that the Curse of the Lord shall not stick to your hand: that the Lord may turn from the wrath of His fury, and may have mercy on you, and multiply you as He swore to your fathers, [18] when you shall obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all His precepts, which I command you this day, that you may do that what is pleasing in the sight of the Lord your God.»
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