Deuteronomy 17

¹ To Yahweh your God you must sacrifice nothing from herd or flock that has any blemish or defect whatsoever, for Yahweh your God holds this detestable.

² ‘If there is anyone, man or woman, among you in any of the towns Yahweh your God is giving you, who does what is displeasing to Yahweh your God by violating his covenant,

³ who goes and serves other gods and worships them, or the sun or the moon or any of heaven’s array – a thing I have forbidden –

⁴ and this person is denounced to you; if after careful inquiry it is found true and confirmed that this hateful thing has been done in Israel,

⁵ you must take the man or woman guilty of this evil deed outside your city gates, and there you must stone that man or woman to death.

⁶ A man may be put to death only on the word of two witnesses or three; and no man may be put to death on the word of one witness alone.

⁷ The witnesses shall be the first to raise their hands against him in putting him to death, then all the people shall follow. You must banish this evil from your midst.

⁸ ‘If a case comes before you which is too difficult for you, a case of murder, legal rights or assault, or any dispute at all in your towns, you must make your way to the place Yahweh your God chooses,

⁹ and approach the levitical priests and the judge then in office. They will hold an inquiry and give a decision for you.

¹⁰ You must abide by the decision they pronounce for you in that place which Yahweh chooses, and you must take care to carry out all their instructions.

¹¹ You must abide by the verdict they give you and by the decision they declare to you, swerving neither right nor left of the sentence they have pronounced for you.

¹² If anyone presumes to disobey either the priest who is there in the service of Yahweh your God, or the judge, that man must die. You must banish this evil from Israel.

¹³ And all the people shall hear of it and be afraid and not act presumptuously a second time.

¹⁴ When you reach the land that Yahweh your God gives you, and take possession of it and live there, if you say to yourself, “I will appoint a king over me like all the surrounding nations”,

¹⁵ it must be a king of Yahweh’s choosing whom you appoint over you; it must be one from among your brothers that is appointed king over you; you are not to give yourself a foreign king who is no brother of yours.

¹⁶ ‘Ensure that he does not increase the number of his horses, or make the people go back to Egypt to increase his cavalry, for Yahweh said to you, “You must never go back that way again”.

¹⁷ Nor must he increase the number of his wives, for that could lead his heart astray. Nor must he increase his gold and silver excessively.

¹⁸ When he is seated on his royal throne he must write a copy of this Law on a scroll for his own use at the dictation of the Levitical priests.

¹⁹ It must never leave him and he must read it every day of his life and learn to fear Yahweh his God by keeping all the words of this Law and observing these laws.

²⁰ So his heart will not look down on his brothers and he will swerve neither right nor left from these commandments. If he does this, he will have long days on his throne, he and his sons, in Israel.