Deuteronomy 17–19

Chapter 17

Administration of Justice

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

²“^aIf there is found in your midst, in any of your ¹towns, which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing 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 you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing 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 to ¹death.

⁶“^aOn the ¹evidence 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 evidence 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.

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,’

¹⁵you 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 countryman.

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

¹⁷“^aHe 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 shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll ^1ain the presence of the Levitical priests.

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

²⁰that his heart may not be lifted up above his ¹countrymen ^aand that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

Chapter 18

Portion of the Levites

¹“^aThe Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the Lord’s offerings by fire and His ¹portion.

²“^aThey shall have no inheritance among their ¹countrymen; the Lord is their inheritance, as He ²promised them.

³“^aNow this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep, of which 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 the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to ^bstand ¹and serve in the name of the Lord forever.

⁶“Now if a Levite comes from any of your ¹towns throughout Israel where he ^aresides, and comes ²whenever he desires to the place which the Lord chooses,

⁷then he shall serve in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord.

⁸“^aThey shall eat ¹equal portions, except what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates.

Spiritism Forbidden

⁹“When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to ^1aimitate the detestable things 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 witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,

¹¹or one who casts a spell, ^aor a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

¹²“For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and ^abecause of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.

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

¹⁴“For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who ^apractice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

¹⁵“^aThe Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your ¹countrymen, you shall listen to him.

¹⁶“This is ^aaccording to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’

¹⁷“^aThe Lord said to me, ‘They have ¹spoken well.

¹⁸‘I will raise up a prophet from among their ¹countrymen like you, and ^aI will put My words in his mouth, and ^bhe shall speak to them all that I command him.

¹⁹‘^aIt shall come about 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“¹You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’

²²“^aWhen a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it ^bpresumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Chapter 19

Cities of Refuge

¹“^aWhen the Lord your God cuts off the nations, whose land the Lord your God gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses,

^2ayou shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the Lord 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 the Lord your God will give you as a possession, ²so that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴“^aNow this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he ¹kills his friend ²unintentionally, ³not 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;

⁶otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer ¹in the heat of his anger, and overtake him, because the way is long, and ²take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously.

⁷“Therefore, I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside three cities for yourself.’

⁸“If the Lord your God ^aenlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He ¹promised to give your fathers—

⁹if you ¹carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, ^ato love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always—^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 the Lord 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 ¹him 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 deliver him 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.

Laws of Landmark and Testimony

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 the Lord 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; on the ²evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

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 the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.

¹⁸“The judges ^ashall investigate thoroughly, and 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“^aThe rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you.

²¹“Thus ^1ayou shall not show pity: ^blife for life, ^ceye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.…