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Deuteronomy 13: The Bible Commands the Total Destruction of Apostate Cities — Including Children

3 min read 670 words

The Bible commands the complete destruction of any city whose people turn to idol worship — killing every man, woman, and child with the sword, burning all property, and leaving the ruins permanent. This is not an interpretation from outside the text — it is the plain ruling of Deuteronomy 13, and the interpretation of the Church’s own scholars confirms it.

The Text

Deuteronomy 13:12–17 (SVD) “If you hear word about one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to live in, that certain men, the sons of a wicked man, have come out from among you and have thrown down the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known,’ and you have examined and searched and inquired diligently, and behold, if it is true and certain that this abomination has been done among you —

then you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, and you shall destroy it with everything in it, with the edge of the sword, and the livestock thereof. You shall gather its goods into the middle of its open place and burn the city and all its goods with fire, whole, for the Lord your God.

And it shall be a heap forever, never to be rebuilt again. And nothing of the forbidden thing shall cling to your hand.”

The Church’s Own Interpretation

Father Tadros Malti states in his interpretation of this text:

Father Tadros Malti — Coptic Commentary on Deuteronomy 13 “If there is a small minority of believers, they will leave the city as from a dangerous place. After that, the men, women, and children will be struck with the sword [verse 15]. Then all the belongings will be brought to a public square and burned with fire, and the city will be turned to ashes and will never be rebuilt.”

Father Tadros states this in his interpretation citing Jewish clerics — without any denial or objection — which clearly indicates agreement with their interpretation.

The Questions That Follow

The ruling, on the Bible’s own terms, is that children are killed with the sword because their fathers apostatised.

Consider what this text actually commands: if a city of the Children of Israel fell into idolatry — if certain men rose up calling for a return to idol worship and the people of the city responded to them — then the ruling of the Holy Book is that the entire city is destroyed, the young children are killed, the animals are slaughtered, all property is burned in a public square, and the ruins are left as a permanent heap never to be rebuilt.

The small minority of believers are told to leave first. The children — who had no say in the apostasy of their parents — are not taken out with the minority. They are killed with the sword.

After this, it remains to be asked: what argument remains for those who claim their Holy Book contains no aggression against people — and that it is Islam that orders aggression?

The Admission of a Christian Historian

Dr. Franz Greiss — A Book That Dispels the Illusions of a Priest “The history of the Christian nations — and more than that, the history of the Church itself — is stained with blood and stained, and perhaps more stained and brutal than that of any other pagan people in the ancient world.”
Deuteronomy 13:12–17 commands the complete destruction of any Israelite city that turns to idol worship — every inhabitant killed by the sword, every animal slaughtered, every possession burned, the ruins left permanent. Father Tadros Malti’s own commentary confirms that this includes the killing of children. Those who claim that the Bible does not contain commands of aggression and violence, while directing this charge at Islam, are refuted by their own scripture and their own scholars.
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