Deuteronomy
17:1 Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the LORD thy God any bullock, or sheep,
wherein is blemish, or any evilfavouredness: for that is an abomination
unto the LORD thy God.
17:2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy
God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight
of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
17:3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the
sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
17:4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently,
and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is
wrought in Israel:
17:5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed
that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and
shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
17:6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is
worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he
shall not be put to death.
17:7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death,
and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil
away from among you.
17:8 If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and
blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being
matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get
thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;
17:9 And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge
that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the
sentence of judgment:
17:10 And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place
which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to
do according to all that they inform thee:
17:11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and
according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do:
thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to
the right hand, nor to the left.
17:12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the
priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto
the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil
from Israel.
17:13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.
17:14 When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and
shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a
king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;
17:15 Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God
shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee:
thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
17:16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to
return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as
the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that
way.
17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not
away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
17:18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he
shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before
the priests the Levites:
17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein 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:
17:20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not
aside 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 midst of Israel.
