Deuteronomy 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.

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.

2 If there is found amongst 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,

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,

3 and has gone and served other gods and worshipped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the stars of the sky, which I have not commanded,

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,

4 and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you shall enquire diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel,

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;

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.

then shall you bring out that man, or that woman, and you shall stone them with stones, and they shall die.

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.

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.

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 amongst you.

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.

8 If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgement, 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.

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;

9 You shall come to the priests who are Levites and to the judge who shall be in those days. You shall enquire, and they shall give you the verdict.

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.

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.

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.

11 According to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgement 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

And all the people shall hear and fear, and shall no more commit impiety.

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,”

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;

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 amongst your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

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.

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.”

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.

17 He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

And he shall not multiply to himself wives, lest his heart turn away; and 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.

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;

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;

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:

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.

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.