18 “You shall appoint judges and officials for you in all your ⌊towns⌋s that Yahweh your God is giving to you throughout your tribes, and you shall render for the people ⌊righteous judgments⌋.t 19 You shall not subvertu justice; you shall not ⌊show partiality⌋;v and you shall not take a bribe, for the bribe makes blind the eyes of the wise and misrepresents the words of the righteous. 20 ⌊Justice, only justice⌋w you shall pursue, so that you may live, and you shall take possession of the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you. 21 You shall not plant for yourselvesx ⌊an Asherah pole⌋y beside the altar of Yahweh your God that you make for yourselves.z 22 And you shall not set up for yourselves a stone pillar, a thing that Yahweh your God hates.

17 “You shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or sheep ⌊that has a physical defect⌋a ⌊of anything seriously wrong⌋,b for that is a detestable thing to Yahweh your God. 2 If there is found in one of your ⌊towns⌋c that Yahweh your God is giving to you a man or a woman that does evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God to transgress his covenant 3 and by going and serving other gods and so he bows down to them and to the sun or to the moon or to any of the host of heaven ⌊which I have forbidden⌋,d 4 and it is reported to you or you hear about it and you enquire about it thoroughly and, indeed,e the trustworthiness of the deedf has been established, it ⌊has occurred⌋,g this detestable thing, in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out that man or that woman who hash done this evil thing to your gates; that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them with stones ⌊to death⌋.i 6 ⌊On the evidence of⌋j two or three witnesses ⌊the person shall be put to death⌋.k The personl shall not be put to death by the mouth of one witness. 7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first against the personm to kill the person,n and afterward the handso of all the people, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

8 “⌊If a matter is too difficult for you⌋,p for example disputes between blood and blood,q between legal claim and legal claimr and between assault and assaults and between matters of discernment in your ⌊towns⌋,t then you shall get up and you shall go to the place that Yahweh your God will choose; 9 then you shall go to the priests and the Levites and to the judge who will be in office in those days, and you shall enquire, and they shall announce to you ⌊the verdict⌋.u

10 “And ⌊you shall carry out exactly the decision⌋v that they announced to you from that place that Yahweh will choose, and ⌊you shall diligently observe⌋w according to all that they instruct you. 11 And so according to ⌊the instruction of the law⌋x that they teach you and according to the decisions that they say to you, you shall do; you shall not turn from the word that they tell you to the right or to the left. 12 And the man who treats with contempty so as not to listen to the priest who is standing to minister on behalf of Yahweh your God or to the judge, that man shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people will hear and will be afraid, and they will not behave presumptuously again.