Deuteronomy 17:8–15

8 “aIf any case is too difficult for you to decide, between 1one kind of homicide or another, between 2one kind of lawsuit or another, and between 3one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your 4courts, then you shall arise and go up to bthe place which the Lord your God chooses.

9 “So you shall come to athe 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 verdict in the case.

10 “You shall do according to the 1terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you.

11 “aAccording to the 1terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict 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 “The man who acts apresumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor 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 apresumptuously again.

14 “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you apossess it and live in it, and you say, ‘bI will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’

15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one afrom among your 1countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your 1countryman.