Deuteronomy 17

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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¹Do not sacrifice an ox or a sheep or goat to the LORD your God if it has a defect or anything wrong with it, because that is detestable to the LORD your God.

Doing evil among you

²If a man or a woman is found among you, in one of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you, doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God and breaking his covenant, ³who has gone and served other gods and bowed down to them, or to the sun or the moon or any of the stars in the sky, which I have not commanded, ⁴and you are told about it, then you must investigate it carefully. If it is true and the charge is proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, ⁵then you are to bring out to your town gates the man or the woman who has done this evil thing, and stone that person to death. ⁶A person may be put to death only when two or three witnesses give evidence. The word of one witness is not enough to put anyone to death. ⁷The witnesses must be the first to raise their hands to put that person to death, and then all the people are to join in. In this way you will remove the evil from among you.

Cases too hard to decide

⁸If a case is too hard for you to decide, whether it concerns bloodshed, legal claims or injuries, any kind of dispute in your towns, then you are to set out and go up to the place the LORD your God will choose, ⁹and go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office at that time. Ask them about the case, and they will give you the verdict. ¹⁰Then carry out the verdict they announce to you there, at the place the LORD will choose. Take care to follow all their directions exactly. ¹¹Act on the instruction they give you and the ruling they announce to you. Do not turn aside from the verdict they declare to you, either to the right or to the left. ¹²Anyone who arrogantly refuses to listen to the priest who stands there serving the LORD your God, or to the judge, must die. In this way you will remove the evil from Israel. ¹³All the people will hear of it and be afraid, and they will not act arrogantly again.

When you set a king over you

¹⁴Once you have entered the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you have taken possession of it and are living there, if you then say, ‘Let us appoint a king over us, like all the nations that surround us,’ ¹⁵you may indeed set a king over you, but it must be the one the LORD your God chooses. Set over you a king from among your fellow Israelites; you may not put a foreigner over you, someone who is not one of your own people. ¹⁶But he must not build up a large number of horses for himself, or send the people back to Egypt to get more horses, for the LORD has told you, ‘You must never go back that way again.’ ¹⁷He must not take many wives for himself, or his heart will be led astray. And he must not pile up great amounts of silver and gold for himself. ¹⁸When he takes his seat on the throne of his kingdom, he is to write out for himself a copy of this law on a scroll, from the one kept by the Levitical priests. ¹⁹He must keep it with him and read from it all his life, so that he learns to fear the LORD his God, carefully keeping every word of this law and these statutes and doing them, ²⁰so that he does not think himself above his fellow Israelites or stray from the commandment to the right or the left. Then he and his descendants will reign over his kingdom in Israel for a long time.