Deuteronomy 17

17“You ^ashall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has any ¹blemish or defect, for that is an ²abomination to the Lord your God.

^2b“If there is found among you, within any of your ³gates which the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the Lord your God, ^cin transgressing His covenant, ³who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either ^dthe sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, ^ewhich I have not commanded, ^4fand it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an ⁴abomination has been committed in Israel, ⁵then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and ^gshall stone ^hto death that man or woman with stones. ⁶Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three ⁱwitnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. ⁷The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among ^jyou.

^8k“If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the ^lplace which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹And ^myou shall come to the priests, the Levites, and ⁿto the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; ^othey shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment. ¹⁰You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the Lord chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you. ¹¹According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you. ¹²Now ^pthe man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. ^13qAnd all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

Principles Governing Kings

¹⁴“When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ^r‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵you shall surely set a king over you ^swhom the Lord your God chooses; one ^tfrom among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶But he shall not multiply ^uhorses for himself, nor cause the people ^vto return to Egypt to multiply horses, for ^wthe Lord has said to you, ^x‘You shall not return that way again.’ ¹⁷Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and ^ygold for himself.

¹⁸“Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one ^zbefore the priests, the Levites. ¹⁹And ^ait shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰that his heart may not ⁵be lifted above his brethren, that he ^bmay not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may ⁶prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.