17
1 You
shall not
sacrifice to the
LORD your God
an ox or
a sheep in
which is a
defect or anything
evil; for that
is an abomination
to the LORD
your God.
2 If
there is found
among you, within
any of your
gates which the
LORD your God
gives you, a
man or woman who
does that which
is evil in
the LORD your
God’s sight in
transgressing his
covenant,
3 and
has gone and
served other gods
and worshiped them,
or the sun,
or the moon,
or any of
the stars of the
sky, which I
have not commanded,
4 and
you are told,
and you have
heard of it,
then you shall
inquire diligently.
Behold, if it
is true, and the
thing certain,
that such
abomination is
done in Israel,
5 then
you shall bring
out that man
or that woman
who has done
this evil thing
to your gates,
even that same
man or woman;
and you shall
stone them to
death with stones.
6 At
the mouth of
two witnesses, or
three witnesses,
he who is
to die shall
be put to
death. At the
mouth of one
witness he shall
not be put
to death.
7 The
hands of the
witnesses shall be
first on him
to put him
to death,
and afterward the
hands of all
the people. So
you shall remove
the evil from
among you.
8 If
there arises a
matter too hard
for you in
judgment, between
blood and blood,
between plea and
plea, and between
stroke and stroke,
being matters of
controversy within
your gates, then
you shall arise,
and go up
to the place
which the LORD
your God chooses.
9 You
shall come to
the priests who
are Levites and
to the judge
who shall be
in those days.
You shall inquire,
and they shall
give you the
verdict.
10 You
shall do according
to the decisions
of the verdict
which they shall
give you from
that place which
the LORD chooses.
You shall observe
to do according
to all that
they shall teach
you.
11 According
to the decisions
of the law
which they shall
teach you, and
according to the
judgment which
they shall tell
you, you shall
do. You shall
not turn away
from the sentence
which they
announce to you,
to the right
hand, nor to
the left.
12 The
man who does
presumptuously in
not listening to
the priest who
stands to minister
there before the
LORD your God,
or to the
judge, even that
man shall die.
You shall put
away the evil
from Israel.
13 All
the people shall
hear and fear,
and do no
more presumptuously.
14 When
you have come
to the land which
the LORD your
God gives you,
and possess it
and dwell in
it, and say, “I
will set a
king over me,
like all the
nations that are
around me,”
15 you
shall surely set
him whom the LORD
your God chooses
as king over
yourselves. You
shall set as
king over you
one from among
your brothers. You
may not put
a foreigner over
you, who is
not your brother.
16 Only
he shall not
multiply horses to
himself, nor cause
the people to
return to Egypt,
to the end
that he may
multiply horses;
because the LORD
has said to you,
“You shall not
go back that
way again.”
17 He
shall not
multiply wives to
himself, that his
heart not turn
away. He shall
not greatly
multiply to
himself silver and
gold.
18 It
shall be, when
he sits on
the throne of
his kingdom, that
he shall write
himself a copy
of this law
in a book,
out of that
which is before
the Levitical
priests.
19 It
shall be with
him, and he
shall read from
it all the
days of his
life, that he
may learn to
fear the LORD
his God, to
keep all the
words of this
law and these
statutes, to do
them;
20 that
his heart not
be lifted up
above his brothers,
and that he
not turn away
from the
commandment to the
right hand, or
to the left,
to the end
that he may prolong
his days in
his kingdom, he
and his children,
in the middle
of Israel.