Essay su Deuteronomio 13:78

The subject is various scenarios under which Israelites might be lured to worship other gods; it has first been broached in Ex. 22:19, and will return in Deut. 17:2–7. Vv.2–6 deal with a religious visionary, 7–12 with a relative (both of whom seek to turn the Israelites to idols), and 13–19 with a whole town that has abandoned the covenant in favor of other gods. In all three cases, the penalty is death, with the chapter building up the sentences into a crescendo of destruction in vv.16–19. The opening verse of the chapter forms a fitting superscript for the bulk of the laws, and hints that Deuteronomy is a kind of final, closed, “canonical” dispensation.