“then you must inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. And if it is established with certainty that this abomination has been committed among you,”
Deuteronomy 13:14 (BSB)
Context Reading
12If, regarding one of the cities the LORD your God is giving you to inhabit, you hear it said 13that wicked men have arisen from among you and have led the people of their city astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known), 14then you must inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. And if it is established with certainty that this abomination has been committed among you, 15you must surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword. Devote to destruction all its people and livestock. 16And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.