Synopsis of the Chapter
God forbids a false prophet, and a friend who persuades to the worship of a foreign god, to be killed and stoned; but a city that cultivated idolatry, He commands, verse 13, to be utterly destroyed down to the livestock, and all its goods to be burned together with the city.
Verse 2: Let Us Follow Other Gods ¶
2. LET US FOLLOW OTHER GODS WHOM YOU DO NOT KNOW -- namely, know to be gods, because they have not shown you those signs of divinity and providence which I showed in Egypt and in the desert.
Verse 3: The Lord Tests You ¶
3. THE LORD TESTS (that is, permits you to be tested) YOU. -- For, as St. James says, chapter 1, 13, God properly tempts no one; but God permits you to be tempted, so that through this it may shine forth and be evident to all whether you love God or not.
Moral Application: Three Ways God Tests Us
Morally, St. Gregory, Moralia XXVIII, chapter VII: "In three ways, he says, our Creator is accustomed to question us. First, when He strikes with the severity of the scourge, and shows how much patience is in us or is lacking." Thus He questioned St. Job. Secondly, when He commands what we are already unwilling to do, and makes known to us our obedience or disobedience. Thus He questioned Abraham, commanding him to sacrifice his son, Genesis XXII. So also here it is said: "The Lord your God tests you, that He may know whether you love Him. For the testing of God is to question us with great commands. His knowing, also, is to make us know our own obedience. Thirdly, when He opens to us some hidden things, and conceals others, and makes known to us the measure of our humility." So He did with St. Paul, when he exclaimed: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"
That It May Be Made Known
THAT IT MAY BE MADE KNOWN. -- In Hebrew and Greek it reads, that He may know; namely, God through experience and through the outcome, what He foreknew by prescience from eternity. Otherwise, St. Augustine, book I of On Genesis Against the Manichees, chapter XXII: That He may know, he says, that is, that He may make us know how much we have advanced in His solid love. Let the faithful think the same, and arm themselves with this thought when heresies arise, as Vincent of Lerins beautifully teaches in his book Against Heresies, where he presses this passage from Deuteronomy.
Verse 5: To Make You Go Astray from the Way ¶
5. TO MAKE YOU GO ASTRAY FROM THE WAY WHICH THE LORD COMMANDED YOU. -- "From the way," that is, from the manner of living and serving God. For the Hebrew word derech, that is, way, means manner of living, conduct, institution, tenor of life.
Verse 9: You Shall Immediately Kill Him ¶
9. BUT YOU SHALL IMMEDIATELY KILL HIM (that is, you shall accuse him, so that he may be immediately killed; for it follows) LET YOUR HAND BE FIRST UPON HIM, that is, you first cast a stone at him, then all the people; which cannot be understood except of one who has been publicly condemned through accusers and judges.
Verse 13: Sons of Belial ¶
13. SONS OF BELIAL HAVE GONE OUT, AND HAVE TURNED AWAY -- that is, the apostates began to turn people away. For to rise up and go out often signifies in Scripture to begin and to undertake some matter, as I said above.
Sons of Belial are rebellious and wicked men, who cast off the yoke of the law and of God, namely sons of the devil: for the devil was the first Belial; that is, the first apostate. The Septuagint translates, paranomoi, that is, lawless ones. See what was said on II Corinthians VI.
The Enallage of Person
LET US SERVE OTHER GODS, WHOM YOU DO NOT KNOW. -- This is an enallage of person; for "let us serve" is the voice of the apostates, but "whom you do not know" is the voice of God; for the apostates would have said: Whom you know to be famous and celebrated among the nations.
Verse 15: You Shall Immediately Strike ¶
15. YOU SHALL IMMEDIATELY STRIKE. -- For this slaughter, all Israel was gathered together, as was done against the Reubenites, Joshua XXII, 12.
Verse 16: You Shall Consume for the Lord ¶
16. YOU SHALL CONSUME FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD -- namely, in honor of your God; for it was a great act of worship of God, and as it were a kind of sacrifice, to destroy and punish those men, so injurious to God, blasphemous and sacrilegious, together with all their possessions, and to establish the anathema, as an example to others: hence Tertullian in the Scorpiace, chapter II, calls these anathemas "devotamenta" (things devoted to destruction).