Deuteronomy 17

¹You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish , any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God .

²If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God , in transgressing his covenant ,

³and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven , which I have forbidden ,

⁴and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently , and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel ,

⁵then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing , and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones .

⁶On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death ; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness .

⁷The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death , and afterward the hand of all the people . So you shall purge the evil from your midst .

⁸If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another , one kind of legal right and another , or one kind of assault and another , any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose .

⁹And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days , and you shall consult them, and they shall declare to you the decision .

¹⁰Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose . And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you.

¹¹According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do . You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left .

¹²The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God , or the judge , that man shall die . So you shall purge the evil from Israel .

¹³And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again .

¹⁴When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say , I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,

¹⁵you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose . One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother .

¹⁶Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses , since the Lord has said to you, You shall never return that way again .

¹⁷And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold .

¹⁸And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom , he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law , approved by the Levitical priests .

¹⁹And 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 by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes , and doing them,

²⁰that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers , and that he may not turn aside from the commandment , either to the right hand or to the left , so that he may continue long in his kingdom , he and his children , in Israel .