Deuteronomy 17

1 “You shall not immolate to the Lord your God a sheep or an ox, in which there is a blemish or any defect at all; for this is an abomination to the Lord your God.

You shall not sacrifice to YHWH your God an ox, or a sheep, in which is a blemish, or anything evil; for that is an abomination to YHWH your God.

2 When there will have been found among you, within one of your gates which the Lord your God will give to you, a man or a woman who is doing evil in the sight of the Lord your God, and who is transgressing his covenant,

If there is found in the midst of you, within any of your gates which YHWH your God gives you, man or woman, who does that which is evil in the sight of YHWH your God, in transgressing his covenant,

3 so as to go and serve foreign gods and adore them, such as the sun and the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not instructed,

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 when this will have been reported to you, and, upon hearing it, if you have inquired diligently and have found it to be true, that the abomination is being done in Israel:

and it be told you, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently; and look, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel,

5 you shall lead forward the man or the woman who has perpetrated this most wicked thing to the gates of your city, and they shall be stoned to death.

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

6 By the mouth of two or three witnesses, he who is to be put to death shall perish. Let no one be killed with only one person speaking testimony against him.

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

7 First, the hands of the witnesses shall be upon him who will be put to death, and lastly, the hands of the remainder of the people shall be sent forth. So may you take away the evil from your midst.

The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

8 If you have perceived that there is among you a difficult and doubtful matter of judgment, between blood and blood, cause and cause, leprosy and leprosy, and if you will have seen that the words of the judges within your gates vary: rise up and ascend to the place which the Lord your God will choose.

If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, 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 YHWH your God shall choose;

9 And you shall approach the priests of the Levitical stock, and the judge, who shall be among them at that time, and you shall inquire of them, and they will reveal to you the truth of the judgment.

and you shall come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days: and you shall inquire; and they shall show you the sentence of judgment.

10 And you shall accept whatever they will say, those who preside in the place which the Lord will choose, and whatever they will teach you,

You shall do according to the tenor of the sentence which they shall show you from that place which YHWH shall choose; and you shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you:

11 in accord with his law, and you shall follow their sentence. Neither shall you turn aside to the right or to the left.

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

12 But whoever will be arrogant, unwilling to obey the order of the priest who ministers at that time to the Lord your God, and the decree of the judge, that man shall die. And so shall you take away the evil from Israel.

The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before YHWH your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die: and you shall put away the evil from Israel.

13 And when the people hear about this, they shall be afraid, so that no one, from that time on, will swell with pride.

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

14 When you will have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, and you possess it, and you live in it, and you say, ‘I will appoint a king over me, just as all the surrounding nations have done,’

When you have come to the land which YHWH your God gives you, 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 around me";

15 you shall appoint him whom the Lord your God will choose from among the number of your brothers. You cannot make a man of another people king, one who is not your brother.

you shall surely set him king over yourselves, whom YHWH your God shall choose: one from among your brothers you shall set king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

16 And when he will have been appointed king, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor lead the people back into Egypt, having been exalted by the number of his horsemen, especially since the Lord has instructed you never to return along the same way.

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 YHWH has said to you, "You shall not go back that way again."

17 He shall not have many wives, who might allure his mind, and he shall not have immense weights of silver and gold.

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

18 Then, after he has been seated upon the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself the Deuteronomy of this law in a volume, using a copy from the priests of the Levitical tribe.

It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

19 And he shall have it with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and to keep his words and ceremonies, which are instructed in the law.

And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear YHWH his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;

20 And so may his heart not become exalted with arrogance over his brothers, nor turn aside to the right or to the left, so that he and his sons may reign for a long time over Israel.”

that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn 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 children, in the midst of Israel.