Chapter 17.
Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the Lord thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is
blemish, or any evil favouredness.
For that is an abomination unto the Lord thy God.
If there be found among you, within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth
thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy
God, in transgressing his covenant, and hath gone and served other gods,
and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the hosts of heaven,
which I have not commanded, and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it,
and inquired diligently, and behold it be true, and the thing certain, that such
abomination is wrought in Israel, then shalt thou bring forth that man or
that woman, which have committed that wicked thing unto thy gates, even that man
or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die.
At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is
worthy of death be put to death, but at the mouth of one witness he shall
not be put to death.
The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and
afterward, the hands of all the people.
So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.
If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood,
between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy
within thy gates, then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the
Lord thy God shall choose.
And thou shalt come unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge that shall
be in those days, and inquire.
And they shall show thee the sentence of judgment, and thou shalt do according to
the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall show
thee.
And thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee, according to
the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment
which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do.
Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee, to the right
hand or to the left.
And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that
standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man,
shall die, and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.
And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.
When thou art common to the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt
possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me,
like as all the nations that are about me, thou shalt in any wise set him king over
thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose.
One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee.
Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to
Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses.
For as much as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more
that way.
Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away.
Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write
him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests,
the Levites.
And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life,
that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law,
and these statutes to do them.
That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from
the commandment to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may prolong
his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.