Deuteronomy 17–19

CHAPTER 17

¹“^aYou shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or a sheep which has a defect or any ¹blemish, for that is an abominable thing to Yahweh your God.

²“^aIf 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,

³and has gone and ^aserved other gods and worshiped them, ^bor the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, ^cwhich I have not commanded,

⁴and 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,

⁵then 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 ^ayou shall stone them, and they will die.

⁶“^aOn 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“^aThe hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ^bSo you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Judging Cases

⁸“^aIf any case is too difficult for you to judge, 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 gates, then you shall arise and go up to ^bthe place which Yahweh 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 judgment in the case.

¹⁰“And you shall do according to the ¹terms 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“^aAccording to the ¹terms 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 ^apresumptuously 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 ^apresumptuously again.

Statutes for the King

¹⁴“When you enter the land which Yahweh 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,’

¹⁵you shall surely set a king over you whom Yahweh your God chooses, one ^afrom among your brothers you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your brother.

¹⁶“^aMoreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he ^bcause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. ^cYahweh has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’

¹⁷“^aAnd he shall not multiply wives for himself, ¹or 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 ^1ain the presence of the Levitical priests.

¹⁹“And it shall be with him, and he shall read it ^aall the days of his life, that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, ¹to carefully observe all the words of this law and these statutes,

²⁰that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers ^aand 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.

CHAPTER 18

The Portion of the Levites

¹“^aThe 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“^aAnd they shall have no inheritance among their brothers; Yahweh is their inheritance, as He ¹promised them.

³“^aNow 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 ^afirst fruits of your grain, your new wine and your oil and the first shearing of your sheep.

⁵“^aFor Yahweh your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to ^bstand 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 ^asojourns and comes ¹whenever he desires to the place which Yahweh chooses,

⁷then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God like all his brothers the Levites who stand there before Yahweh.

⁸“^aThey shall eat ¹equal 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 ^1aimitate the abominations of those nations.

¹⁰“There shall not be found among you anyone ^awho makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one ^bwho practices soothsaying or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer,

¹¹or one who is an enchanter ^aor a medium or a spiritist or one who inquires of the dead.

¹²“For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh; and ^abecause of these abominations Yahweh your God will dispossess them from before you.

¹³“^aYou shall be ¹blameless before Yahweh your God.

¹⁴“For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who ^apractice 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“^aYahweh 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 ^aaccording 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“^aAnd Yahweh said to me, ‘They have ¹spoken well.

¹⁸‘I will raise up a prophet from among their brothers like you, and ^aI will put My words in his mouth, and ^bhe shall speak to them all that I command him.

¹⁹‘^aAnd 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 ^apresumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^bwhich he speaks in the name of other gods, ¹that prophet shall die.’

²¹“Now ¹you may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?’

²²“^aWhen 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 ^bpresumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

CHAPTER 19

Statutes About Cities of Refuge

¹“^aWhen 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,

^2ayou shall set apart three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to ¹possess.

³“You shall prepare the ¹roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which Yahweh your God will give you to inherit, ²so that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴“^aNow this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he strikes down his friend ¹without premeditation, ²not hating him previously—

⁵as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand ¹swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the ²handle and ³strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live;

⁶lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer when his heart is ¹angry, and overtake him, because the way is long, and ²strike 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 ^aenlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He ¹promised to give to your fathers—

⁹if you ¹be careful to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today, ^ato love Yahweh your God and to walk in His ways all your days—^bthen 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 ^abloodguiltiness be on you.

¹¹“But ^aif there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes down ¹his life so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

¹²then 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“^1aYou shall not pity him, but ^byou shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Statutes About Boundaries and Witnesses

¹⁴“^aYou 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 ¹possess.

¹⁵“^aA single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin ¹which he has committed; at the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter shall be established.

¹⁶“^aIf a malicious witness rises up against a man to ¹accuse him of ²wrongdoing,

¹⁷then both the men who have the dispute shall stand ^abefore Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.

¹⁸“And the judges ^ashall inquire thoroughly, and behold, if the witness is a false witness and he has ¹accused his brother falsely,

¹⁹then ^ayou shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

²⁰“^aAnd the rest will hear and be afraid and will never again do such an evil thing…