Deuteronomy 17:8–13

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

⁸“If a judicial decision is too difficult for you to make between one kind of bloodshed and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another—any such matters of dispute in your towns—then you shall immediately go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose,^{* 9}where you shall consult with the Levitical priests and the judge who is in office in those days; they shall announce to you the decision in the case.^{* 10}Carry out exactly the decision that they announce to you from the place that the Lord will choose, diligently observing everything they instruct you. ¹¹You must carry out the law that they interpret for you or the ruling that they announce to you; do not turn aside from the decision that they announce to you, either to the right or to the left.^{* 12}As for anyone who presumes to disobey the priest appointed to minister there to the Lord your God or the judge, that person shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. ¹³All the people will hear and be afraid and will not act presumptuously again.^*