Deuteronomy 17

1 Thou shall not sacrifice to Jehovah thy God an ox, or a sheep, in which is a blemish or anything bad, for that is an abomination to Jehovah thy God.

2 If there be found in the midst of thee, within any of thy gates which Jehovah thy God gives thee, man or woman, who does that which is evil in the sight of Jehovah thy God, 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 host of heaven, which I have not commanded,

4 and it be told thee, and thou have heard of it, then shall thou inquire diligently. And, behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel,

5 then thou shall bring forth that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to thy gates, even the man or the woman, and thou shall stone them to death with stones.

6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he who is to die be put to death. He shall not be put to death at the mouth of one witness.

7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So thou shall put away the evil from the midst of thee.

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 thou shall arise, and get thee up to the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose.

9 And thou shall come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days, and thou shall inquire. And they shall show thee the sentence of judgment.

10 And thou shall do according to the tenor of the sentence which they shall show thee from that place which Jehovah shall choose. And thou shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach thee,

11 according to the tenor of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shall do. Thou shall not turn aside from the sentence, which they shall show thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.

12 And the man who does presumptuously, in not hearkening to the priest who stands to minister there before Jehovah thy God, or to the judge, even that man shall die, and thou shall put away the evil from Israel.

13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

14 When thou have come to the land which Jehovah thy God gives thee, and shall possess it, and shall dwell in it, and shall say, I will set a king over me like all the nations that are round about me,

15 thou shall surely set him king over thee whom Jehovah thy God shall choose. Thou shall set a king over thee from among thy brothers. Thou may not put a foreigner over thee who is not thy 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, inasmuch as Jehovah has said to you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.

17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away. Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

18 And it shall be, when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for him a copy of this law in a book, out of it before the priests the Levites,

19 and it shall be with him. And he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear Jehovah 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 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 sons, in the midst of Israel.