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.

2 b“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, 3 who 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, 4 fand 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, 5 then 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. 6 Whoever 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. 7 The 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.

8 k“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. 9 And 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. 10 You 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. 11 According 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. 12 Now 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. 13 qAnd 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,’ 15 you 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. 16 But 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.’ 17 Neither 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. 19 And 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, 20 that 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.