Deuteronomy 17–19

17^j“You 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.

^2k“If 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, ^lin transgressing his covenant, ³and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or ^mthe sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, ⁿwhich I have forbidden, ⁴and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire ^odiligently, 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 ^pshall stone that man or woman to death with stones. ^6qOn 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. ^7rThe hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So ^syou shall purge¹ the evil² from your midst.

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

⁸“If 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 ^tthe place that the Lord your God will choose. ^9uAnd you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and ^vthey 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 ^wacts presumptuously by not obeying the priest ^xwho stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So ^syou shall purge the evil from Israel. ¹³And all the people ^yshall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.

Laws Concerning Israel’s Kings

¹⁴“When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ^z‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵you may indeed set a king over you ^awhom the Lord your God will choose. One ^bfrom 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 ^chorses for himself or cause the people ^dto return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ^e‘You shall never return that way again.’ ¹⁷And he ^fshall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, ^gnor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

¹⁸“And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, ^hhe shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, ⁱapproved by³ the Levitical priests. ¹⁹And ^jit shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, ^kthat 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 ^lmay not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, ^mso that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

Provision for Priests and Levites

18“The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, ⁿshall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They ^oshall eat the Lord’s food offerings¹ as their² inheritance. ²They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. ³And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: ^pthey shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. ^4qThe firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. ⁵For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes ^rto stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.

⁶“And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, ^swhere he lives—and he may come when he desires³—^tto the place that the Lord will choose, ⁷and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, ^ulike all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, ⁸then he may have equal ^vportions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.⁴

Abominable Practices

⁹“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, ^wyou shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. ¹⁰There shall not be found among you anyone ^xwho burns his son or his daughter as an offering,⁵ anyone who ^ypractices divination or ^ztells fortunes or interprets omens, or ^aa sorcerer ¹¹or a charmer or ^ba medium or a necromancer or ^cone who inquires of the dead, ^12dfor whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And ^ebecause of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. ¹³You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, ¹⁴for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

A New Prophet like Moses

^15f“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb ^gon the day of the assembly, when you said, ^h‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷And the Lord said to me, ⁱ‘They are right in what they have spoken. ^18fI will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. ^jAnd I will put my words in his mouth, and ^khe shall speak to them all that I command him. ^19lAnd whoever will ^mnot listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. ²⁰ⁿBut the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or⁶ who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ ²¹And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— ^22owhen a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; ⁿthe prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge

19“When ^pthe Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, ^2qyou shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³You shall measure the distances¹ and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.

⁴“This is the provision for ^rthe manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past— ⁵as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live, ⁶lest ^sthe avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. ⁷Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities. ^8tAnd if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, ^uas he has sworn to your fathers, and ^vgives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers— ⁹provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways—^wthen you shall add three other cities to these three, ¹⁰lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

¹¹“But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him ^xand strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, ¹²then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. ^13yYour eye shall not pity him, ^zbut you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood² from Israel, so that it may be well with you.

Property Boundaries

^14a“You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Laws Concerning Witnesses

¹⁵“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. ^bOnly on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. ¹⁶If ^ca malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, ¹⁷then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, ^dbefore the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. ¹⁸The judges shall ^einquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, ^19fthen you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil³ from your midst. ²⁰And the rest ^gshall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. ^21yYour eye shall not pity. ^hIt shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.