1 “Youshall not sacrifice to theLordyour God a bull or sheep which has any blemishordefect, for thatisan abomination to theLordyour God.
2 “If there is found among you, within any of your gates which theLordyour God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of theLordyour God,in transgressing His covenant,
3 who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, eitherthe sun or moon or any of the host of heaven,which I have not commanded,
4 and it is told you, and you hearofit,then you shall inquire diligently. And ifitisindeed trueandcertain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel,
5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, andshall stoneto death that man or woman with stones.
6 Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or threewitnesses; 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 amongyou.
8 “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 theplace which theLordyour God chooses.
9 Andyou shall come to the priests, the Levites, andto the judgetherein those days, and inquireofthem;they 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 theLordchooses. 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 asidetothe right hand ortothe left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you.
12 Nowthe man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before theLordyour God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel.
13 And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.
Principles Governing Kings
14 “When you come to the land which theLordyour God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say,‘I will set a king over me like all the nations thatarearound me,’
15 you shall surely set a king over youwhom theLordyour God chooses;onefrom among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, whoisnot your brother.
16 But he shall not multiplyhorses for himself, nor cause the peopleto return to Egypt to multiply horses, fortheLordhas said to you,‘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 andgold 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, fromtheonebefore the priests, the Levites.
19 Andit shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear theLordhis God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,
20 that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that hemay not turn aside from the commandmenttothe right hand ortothe left, and that he may prolonghisdays in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.