Deuteronomy 17

Modern

Literal

Detestable Sacrifices

¹You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep with any defect or serious flaw, for that is detestable to the LORD your God.

¹You shall not sacrifice to YHWH your God a bull or sheep that has in it a blemish, any serious flaw; for it is an abomination to YHWH your God.

Purge the Idolater

²If a man or woman among you in one of the towns that the LORD your God gives you is found doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God by transgressing His covenant

²If there is found among you in one of your gates that YHWH your God is giving to you a man or a woman who has been wicked in the eyes of YHWH your God in transgressing His covenant,

³and going to worship other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven—which I have forbidden—

³and who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, and the sun or the moon or any of the host of the heavens that I have not commanded,

⁴and if it is reported and you hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly.

If the report is true and such an abomination has happened in Israel,

⁴and it is told to you and you hear it, you shall inquire diligently. And if indeed true the thing is established—this abomination has been done in Israel—

⁵you must bring out to your gates the man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you must stone that person to death.

⁵then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has committed this wicked thing to your gates—the man or the woman—and you shall stone them with stones and they shall die.

⁶On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but he shall not be executed on the testimony of a lone witness.

⁶On the testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses he must surely be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness.

⁷The hands of the witnesses shall be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people. So you must purge the evil from among you.^a

⁷The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and the hands of all the people afterward. And you shall put away the evil from among you.

Courts of Law

⁸If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the LORD your God will choose.

⁸If a matter is too hard for you to judge—between guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another judgment, or between one punishment or another punishment, matters of controversies within your gates—you shall arise and go up to the place that YHWH your God chooses.

⁹You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Inquire of them, and they will give you a verdict in the case.

⁹And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who will be there in those days, and you shall inquire. And they shall pronounce upon you the word of the judgment.

¹⁰You must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you,

¹⁰And you shall do according to the mouth of the word that they pronounce upon you, in that place that YHWH chooses, and you shall be careful to do according to all that they instruct you.

¹¹according to the terms of law they give and the verdict they proclaim. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from the decision they declare to you.

¹¹According to the sentence of the law that they instruct you, and according to the judgment that they tell to you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word that they pronounce to you, to the right or to the left.

¹²But the man who acts presumptuously, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, or to the judge, must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

¹²And the man who acts proudly and will not listen to the priest who stands there to serve YHWH your God, or to the judge, that man must die, and you shall put away the evil from Israel.

¹³Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will no longer behave arrogantly.

¹³And all the people shall hear and be afraid and not act proudly anymore.

Guidelines for a King

¹⁴When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”

¹⁴When you come into the land that YHWH your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and say, “I will set over myself a king like all the nations that are around me,”

¹⁵you are to appoint over yourselves the king whom the LORD your God shall choose. Appoint a king from among your brothers; you are not to set over yourselves a foreigner who is not one of your brothers.

¹⁵you shall surely set over yourself a king whom YHWH your God chooses; by him from among your brothers you shall set over yourself a king; you may not set over yourself a foreigner, a man who is not your brother.

¹⁶But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’

¹⁶Only, he shall not multiply for himself horses nor cause to return the people to Egypt so as to multiply horses, for YHWH has said to you, ‘You shall not return this way again.’

¹⁷He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.

¹⁷And he shall not multiply for himself wives, and his heart shall not turn away, and silver and gold he shall not multiply for himself greatly.

¹⁸When he is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

¹⁸And it shall come to pass, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the faces of the priests, the Levites.

¹⁹It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes.

¹⁹And it shall come to pass with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear YHWH his God by carefully observing all the words of this law and doing these statutes,

²⁰Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel.

²⁰that his heart may not be lifted above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left, that he may prolong his days in his kingdom—he and his children—in the midst of Israel.