Deuteronomy 17-19

Legacy Standard Bible

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

² “^(B)If there is found in your midst, in any of your gates of the towns which Yahweh your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, by trespassing against His covenant, ³ and has gone and ^(C)served other gods and worshiped them, ^(D)or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, ^(E)which I have not commanded, ⁴ and if it is told to you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the matter is confirmed that this abomination has been done in Israel, ⁵ then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and ^(F)you shall stone them, and they will die. ^6 (G)On the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the mouth of one witness. ^7 (H)The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ^(I)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Judging Cases

⁸ “^(J)If any case is too difficult for you to judge, between ^[b]one kind of homicide or another, between ^[c]one kind of lawsuit or another, and between ^[d]one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your gates, then you shall arise and go up to ^(K)the place which Yahweh your God chooses. ⁹ So you shall come to ^(L)the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them, and they will declare to you the judgment in the case. ¹⁰ And you shall do according to the ^[e]terms of the judgment which they declare to you from that place which Yahweh chooses; and you shall be careful to do according to all that they teach you. ^11 (M)According to the ^[f]terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left. ¹² And the man who acts ^(N)presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to minister to Yahweh your God, or to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. ¹³ Then all the people will hear and be afraid and will not act ^(O)presumptuously again.

Statutes for the King

¹⁴ “When you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you ^(P)possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘^(Q)I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall surely set a king over you whom Yahweh your God chooses, one ^(R)from among your brothers you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your brother. ^16 (S)Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he ^(T)cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. ^(U)Yahweh has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ ^17 (V)And he shall not multiply wives for himself, ^[g]or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ “Now it will be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll ^[h](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, that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, ^[i]to carefully observe all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers ^(Y)and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his sons in the midst of Israel.

The Portion of the Levites

18 “^(Z)The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat of the offerings to Yahweh by fire and of His inheritance. ^2 (AA)And they shall have no inheritance among their brothers; Yahweh is their inheritance, as He ^[j]promised them.

³ “^(AB)Now this shall be the legal judgment for the priests taken from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. ⁴ You shall give him the ^(AC)first fruits of your grain, your new wine and your oil and the first shearing of your sheep. ^5 (AD)For Yahweh your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to ^(AE)stand to minister in the name of Yahweh all the days.

⁶ “Now if a Levite comes from any of your gates of the towns throughout Israel where he ^(AF)sojourns and comes ^[k]whenever he desires to the place which Yahweh chooses, ⁷ then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God like all his brothers the Levites who stand there before Yahweh. ^8 (AG)They shall eat ^[l]equal portions, except what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates.

Do Not Imitate Abominations

⁹ “When you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to ^[m](AH)imitate the abominations of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone ^(AI)who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one ^(AJ)who practices soothsaying or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who is an enchanter ^(AK)or a medium or a spiritist or one who inquires of the dead. ¹² For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh; and ^(AL)because of these abominations Yahweh your God will dispossess them from before you. ^13 (AM)You shall be ^[n]blameless before Yahweh your God. ¹⁴ For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who ^(AN)practice soothsaying and to diviners, but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do so.

Yahweh Will Raise Up a Prophet

¹⁵ “^(AO)Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers; you shall listen to him. ¹⁶ This is ^(AP)according to all that you asked of Yahweh your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God; let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’ ^17 (AQ)And Yahweh said to me, ‘They have ^[o]spoken well. ¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet from among their brothers like you, and ^(AR)I will put My words in his mouth, and ^(AS)he shall speak to them all that I command him. ^19 (AT)And it will be that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. ²⁰ But the prophet who speaks a word ^(AU)presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^(AV)which he speaks in the name of other gods, ^[p]that prophet shall die.’ ²¹ Now ^[q]you may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?’ ^22 (AW)When a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it ^(AX)presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Statutes About Cities of Refuge

19 “^(AY)When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations, whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses, ^2 (AZ)you shall set apart three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to ^[r]possess. ³ You shall prepare the ^[s]roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which Yahweh your God will give you to inherit, ^[t]so that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴ “^(BA)Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he strikes down his friend ^[u]without premeditation, ^[v]not hating him previously— ⁵ as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ^[w]swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ^[x]handle and ^[y]strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live; ⁶ lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer when his heart is ^[z]angry, and overtake him, because the way is long, and ^[aa]strike down his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously. ⁷ Therefore, I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall set apart three cities for yourself.’

⁸ “Now if Yahweh your God ^(BB)enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He ^[ab]promised to give to your fathers— ⁹ if you ^[ac]be careful to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today, ^(BC)to love Yahweh your God and to walk in His ways all your days—^(BD)then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. ¹⁰ So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, and ^(BE)bloodguiltiness be on you.

¹¹ “But ^(BF)if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes down ^[ad]his life so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and give him over into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. ^13 [ae](BG)You shall not pity him, but ^(BH)you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Statutes About Boundaries and Witnesses

¹⁴ “^(BI)You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to ^[af]possess.

¹⁵ “^(BJ)A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin ^[ag]which he has committed; at the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter shall be established. ^16 (BK)If a malicious witness rises up against a man to ^[ah]accuse him of ^[ai]wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both the men who have the dispute shall stand ^(BL)before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. ¹⁸ And the judges ^(BM)shall inquire thoroughly, and behold, if the witness is a false witness and he has ^[aj]accused his brother falsely, ¹⁹ then ^(BN)you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. ^20 (BO)And the rest will hear and be afraid and will never again do such an evil thing among you. ²¹ Thus ^(BP)your eye shall not show pity: ^(BQ)life for life, ^(BR)eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.