Deuteronomy 17, verse 1. “You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a young bull or sheep having any blemish or defect, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 17, verse 2. “If there is found among you, within any of your cities the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who does evil before the Lord your God in transgressing His covenant, Deuteronomy 17, verse 3. and who went and served and worshiped different gods, either the sun, moon, or any ornamentation of heaven, which He did not command, Deuteronomy 17, verse 4. and it is told you, then you shall inquire diligently; and if it is indeed true that such an abomination happened in Israel, Deuteronomy 17, verse 5. then you shall bring out that man or woman; and you shall stone to death that man or woman with stones. Deuteronomy 17, verse 6. Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Deuteronomy 17, verse 7. The hand of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away their evil from among you. Deuteronomy 17, verse 8. “If there is some matter you are unable to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy in your cities, then you shall arise and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses for His name to be called upon there. Deuteronomy 17, verse 9. So you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days and inquire of them; and they shall pronounce the judgment for you. Deuteronomy 17, verse 10. You shall do according to the sentence they pronounce upon you in that place the Lord your God chooses for His name to be called upon there. Thus you shall be very careful to do according to all they order you. Deuteronomy 17, verse 11. According to the law and the judgment in which they instruct you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence they pronounce upon you. Deuteronomy 17, verse 12. Now the man who acts arrogantly and will not obey the priest or the judge who may be there in those days, and who stands to minister in the name of the Lord your God, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. Deuteronomy 17, verse 13. Then all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act impiously.
Setting Up Rulers
Deuteronomy 17, verse 14. “If you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you inherit it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a ruler over me like the remaining nations around me,’ Deuteronomy 17, verse 15. you shall surely set a ruler over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as a ruler over yourself; you cannot set a foreigner over yourself, because he is not your brother. Deuteronomy 17, verse 16. Wherefore he shall not multiply a cavalry for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt; for the Lord said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’ Deuteronomy 17, verse 17. Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart be changed; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. Deuteronomy 17, verse 18. Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his rule, that he shall write for himself a copy of this second law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. Deuteronomy 17, verse 19. It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all these commandments and ordinances, Deuteronomy 17, verse 20. that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left and may prolong his rule, he and his sons among the sons of Israel.