Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 17 ©

1 The things sacrificed must be sound. 2 Idolaters must be put to death. 8 Hard controversies must be determined by the priests and judges, the presumptuous scorner of their judgment must be put to death. 14 The election and duty of a king.

1

THOU shalt anot sacrifice unto the LORD thy God any bullock, or 1sheep, wherein is blemish, or any *evilfavouredness: for that is an abomination unto the LORD thy God.

2

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

3

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

4

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

5

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

6

At ithe 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

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

k v.12.
8

¶If lthere 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 mshalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;

9

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

10

And thou shalt do according to pthe sentence, 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 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 shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.

12

And the man that qwill do presumptuously, 2and will not hearken unto the priest rthat standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: sand thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.

r ch. 18.5,7.
13

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

14

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

15

Thou wshalt in any wise 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, which is not thy brother.

16

But he shall not xmultiply 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 unto you, yYe shall henceforth return no more that way.

17

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

18

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

19

And eit 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 fhis 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 gthe end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.