THE FIFTH BOOK OF

MOSES,
called
D E U T E R O N O M Y

Deuteronomy 17 ©

Which cattle was an abomination for offering unto the LORD, v. 1, etc. The punishment of those who turned aside from the true worship of God unto idolatry, 2. How the inferior judges were to demean themselves in weighty and obscure matters of the law, 8. Of the choosing of a king and his duties, 14.

1

THOU shalt not sacrifice unto the LORD thy God any bullock, or 1sheep, wherein is blemish,aor 2any evilfavouredness:b for that is an abomination unto 3the LORD thy God.

2

¶Ifc there 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 4his covenant,

3

And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or 5any of the host of heaven, 6which I have not commanded;

4

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

5

Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked 7thing, unto thy 8gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.

6

9Atd the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he 10that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

7

Thee 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 put the 11evil away from among you.

8

¶If there arise a matter too 12hard for theef in judgment, between 13blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between 14stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;

9

And thou shalt come unto the 15priests the Levites, 16and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the 17sentence of judgment:

10

And thou shalt do according to the 18sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:

11

According to 19the 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 shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.

12

And the man that will do 20presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that 21standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, 22or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the 23evil from Israel.

13

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

14

¶When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt 24say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;

15

Thou shalt in 25any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among 26thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.

16

But he shall not 27multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply 28horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, 29Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.

17

Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart 30turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself 31silver and gold.

18

And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a 32copy of this law in a book 33out of that which is before the priests the Levites:

19

And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein 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, and that he turn not 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.