Deuteronomy, Chapter 17:

Verses from Deuteronomy, Chapter 17 of the book of Deuteronomy of the Bible.

1. “Do not offer defective or imperfect animals to the Lord your God, as this would be detestable to Him.
2. If anyone, man or woman, living in one of the cities the Lord is giving you is found doing what is reprehensible in the eyes of the Lord, violating His covenant,
3. worshiping other gods, prostrating themselves before them, the sun, the moon or the stars of the sky,
4. and you know this, investigate deeply. If it is true and it is proven that this abomination was committed in Israel,
5. take the man or woman who committed this sin to the city gate and stone them to death.
6. The death sentence will only be carried out based on the testimony of two or three witnesses; no one will be sentenced to death based on the testimony of just one person.
7. The witnesses will be the first to throw the stones, and then all the people. Drive out evil from among you.

The courts

8. “If difficult-to-prosecute cases arise in your cities, such as homicides, litigation or assaults,
9. go to the place that the Lord your God has chosen, and present your case to the Levite priests and to the judge who is serving at that time. They will give the sentence.
10. You must act in accordance with the decision they proclaim in the place the Lord has chosen. Follow the instructions they give.
11. Do exactly what they order, not straying to the right or to the left.
12. Those who act rebelliously against the judge or the priest who are serving the Lord must be killed. Remove evil from among Israel.
13. In this way, all the people will fear and will not dare to act rebelliously.

14. “When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you and take it as your inheritance, and you settle there, if you say, 'We want to have a king to rule us, like all the nations around us.' ,
15. Be careful to choose as king the one the Lord your God appoints. He must be an Israelite, one of his own brothers. Do not place a foreigner as king over you.
16. The king must not acquire many horses for himself, nor make the people return to Egypt to get more horses, for the Lord has said to you, 'Do not ever return that way.'
17. He should not have many wives, lest his heart turn away. You should also not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
18. “When he ascends the throne of his kingdom, he must write for himself a copy of this law, which is under the responsibility of the Levitical priests.
19. He must always carry this copy with him and read it every day of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and to faithfully fulfill all the words of this law and decrees.
20. This will help you not to consider yourself superior to your fellow Israelites and not to stray from the law, either to the right or to the left. Thus, he will prolong his reign over Israel, he and his descendants.