< Deuteronomy 17 >

1 You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a calf or a sheep, in which there is a blemish, [or] any evil thing; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.
Don't sacrifice to the Lord your God cattle or a sheep that has a defect or has something seriously wrong, for that is offensive to the Lord your God.
2 And if there should be found in any one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who shall do that which is evil before the Lord your God, so as to transgress his covenant,
There may be a report that one of you, whether a man or a woman, living in a town that the Lord your God gave you, has been found to be sinning in the sight of the Lord your God by breaking the Lord's agreement.
3 and they should go and serve other gods, and worship them, the sun, or the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which he commanded you not to do,
This person has done this by going to worship other gods, bowing down to them—or to the sun, moon, or any of the stars of heaven—which I have ordered you not to do.
4 and it be told you, and you shall have enquired diligently, and, behold, the thing really took place, this abomination has been done in Israel;
If you hear such a report, you need to make a full investigation. If you find out that the report is true, and that such an awful sin has been committed in Israel,
5 then shall you bring out that man, or that woman, and you shall stone them with stones, and they shall die.
you must have the man or woman who has committed this terrible act taken outside the town and stoned to death.
6 He shall die on the testimony of two or three witnesses; a man who is put to death shall not be put to death for one witness.
That person is to be executed based on the evidence given by two or three witnesses. No one shall be executed on the evidence given by a single witness.
7 And the hand of the witnesses shall be upon him amongst the first to put him to death, and the hand of the people at the last; so shall you remove the evil one from amongst yourselves.
The witnesses must act first in executing the person, and then the rest of those who are present. You must eliminate the evil from among you.
8 And if a matter shall be too hard for you in judgement, between blood and blood, and between cause and cause, and between stroke and stroke, and between contradiction and contradiction, matters of judgement in your cities;
If there's a case before your town court that is too problematic for you to settle, whether the argument is over murder or manslaughter, one legal decision against another, or different degrees of assault, you must take the issue to the place the Lord your God will choose.
9 then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God shall choose, and you shall come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days, and they shall search out [the matter] and report the judgement to you.
Go to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge in charge. Present the case to them, and they will give you their decision.
10 And you shall act according to the thing which they shall report to you out of the place which the Lord your God shall choose, and you shall observe to do all whatever shall have been by law appointed to you.
You must abide by the decision they give you there at the place the Lord will choose. Make sure you do everything they tell you to do,
11 You shall do according to the law and to the judgement which they shall declare to you: you shall not swerve to the right hand or to the left from any sentence which they shall report to you.
in accordance with the legal instructions they give you and the verdict they delivered. Don't deviate from the decision they give you.
12 And the man whoever shall act in haughtiness, so as not to listen to the priest who stands to minister in the name of the Lord your God, or the judge who shall preside in those days, that man shall die, and you shall remove the evil one out of Israel.
Anyone who treats with contempt either the priest (who ministers before the Lord your God) or the judge, must be executed. You must eliminate this evil from Israel.
13 And all the people shall hear and fear, and shall no more commit impiety.
Then everyone else will hear about it and be afraid, and won't act with contempt in the future.
14 And when you shall enter into the land which the Lord your God gives you, and shall inherit it and dwell in it, and shall say, I will set a ruler over me, as also the other nations round about me;
After you've entered the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken it over and settled in it, and you decide, “Let's have a king to rule over us like all the other nations around us do,”
15 you shall surely set over you the ruler whom the Lord God shall choose: of your brethren you shall set over you a ruler; you shall not have power to set over you a stranger, because he is not your brother.
you can have a king but only one chosen by the Lord your God. He must be an Israelite. You must not have a king who is a foreigner; someone who is not an Israelite.
16 For he shall not multiply to himself horses, and he shall by no means turn the people back to Egypt, lest he should multiply to himself horses; for the Lord said, You shall not any more turn back by that way.
Your king must not have large numbers of horses, or send his men to Egypt to buy more horses, because the Lord has declared, “You must never to return there again.”
17 And he shall not multiply to himself wives, lest his heart turn away; and he shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
He must not have many wives, so they don't lead him away from following the Lord. He must not have large quantities of silver and gold.
18 And when he shall be established in his government, then shall he write for himself this repetition of the law into a book by the hands of the priests the Levites;
Once he is king and sits on his royal throne, he must make a copy for himself of these instructions, writing them on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.
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 the Lord your God, and to keep all these commandments, and to observe these ordinances:
He is to keep it with him, and he is to read from it each day throughout his life, so he may learn to respect the Lord his God by being careful to follow every word of these instructions and regulations.
20 that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, that he depart not from the commandments on the right hand or on the left; that he and his sons may reign long in his dominion amongst the children of Israel.
Then he won't think more of himself than his fellow Israelites, and he won't deviate from the commandments, so that he and his sons may have long reigns over the kingdom of Israel.

< Deuteronomy 17 >