Administration of Justice

17 “^(A)You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any ^[a]defect, for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God.

² “^(B)If there is found in your midst, in any of your ^[b]towns which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by violating His covenant, ³ and that person has gone and ^(C)served other gods and worshiped them, ^(D)or the sun, the moon, or any of the heavenly ^[c]lights, ^(E)which I have commanded not to do, ⁴ and if it is reported to you and you have heard about it, then you shall investigate thoroughly. And ^[d]if it is true and the report is trustworthy that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, ⁵ then you are to bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil deed, that is, the man or the woman, and ^(F)you shall stone them to ^[e]death. ^6 (G)On the ^[f]testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses, the ^[g]condemned shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the ^[h]testimony of only one witness. ^7 (H)The hands of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. ^(I)So you shall eliminate the evil from your midst.

⁸ “^(J)If a case is too difficult for you to decide, between ^[i]one kind of homicide or another, between ^[j]one kind of lawsuit or another, and between ^[k]one kind of assault or another, that are cases of dispute in your ^[l]courts, then you shall arise and go up to ^(K)the place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ So you shall come to ^(L)the Levitical priests or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the ^[m]verdict. ¹⁰ Then you shall act in accordance with the ^[n]terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to act in accordance with everything that they instruct you to do. ^11 (M)In accordance with the ^[o]terms of the law about which they instruct you, and in accordance with the verdict which they tell you, you shall act; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left. ¹² But the person who acts ^(N)insolently by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that person shall die; so you shall eliminate the evil from Israel. ¹³ Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act ^(O)insolently again.

¹⁴ “When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you ^(P)take possession of it and live in it, and you say, ‘^(Q)I will appoint a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall in fact appoint a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One ^(R)from among your countrymen you shall appoint as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves, anyone who is not your countryman. ^16 (S)In any case, he is not to acquire many horses for himself, nor shall he ^(T)make the people return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since ^(U)the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ ¹⁷ And ^(V)he shall not acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ “Now it shall come about, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Law on a scroll ^[p](W)in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ And it shall be with him, and he shall read it ^(X)all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear the Lord his God, ^[q]by carefully following all the words of this Law and these statutes, ²⁰ so that his heart will not be haughty toward his countrymen, ^(Y)and that he will not turn away from the commandment to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may ^[r]live long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.