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.

Thou shalt not sacrifice to the LORD thy God any bull, or sheep, in which is blemish, or any defect: for that is an abomination to the LORD thy 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,

If there shall be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,

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,

And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;

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;

And it shall be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:

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

Then shalt thou bring forth to thy gates that man or that woman, who have committed that wicked thing, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.

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.

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

7 And the hand of the witnesses shall be upon him among the first to put him to death, and the hand of the people at the last; so shall you remove the evil one from among yourselves.

The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt remove the evil from among you.

8 And if a matter shall be too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, and between cause and cause, and between stroke and stroke, and between contradiction and contradiction, matters of judgment in your cities;

If there shall 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 shalt thou arise, and go up to the place which the LORD thy God shall 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 judgment to you.

And thou shalt come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment:

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.

And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall show thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:

11 You shall do according to the law and to the judgment 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.

According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.

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.

And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken to the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or to the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt remove the evil from Israel.

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

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

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;

When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell in it, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;

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.

Thou shalt surely set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, who is not thy brother.

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.

But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said to you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.

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.

Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart may turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself 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;

And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is 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 the Lord your God, and to keep all these commandments, and to observe these ordinances:

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 his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:

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 among the children of Israel.

That his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, and that he may 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.