A blemished sacrifice, an idolater’s death
1Do not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or a sheep that has a defect or any serious flaw, for that is detestable to Yahweh your God. 2If a man or woman among you, within any of the gates Yahweh your God is giving you, is found doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, breaking his covenant, 3by going and serving other gods, bowing down to them, or to the sun, the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, 4and it is reported to you, and you hear of it, you must investigate thoroughly. If it proves true and certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, 5bring the man or woman who did this evil thing to your gates, and stone that man or woman to death. 6On the testimony of two or three witnesses the condemned is to be put to death; no one is to be put to death on the testimony of a single witness. 7The hands of the witnesses are to be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.
Cases too hard, brought to the priests
8If a case is too difficult for you to judge — whether one kind of killing or another, one kind of lawsuit or another, one kind of assault or another, matters disputed within your gates — go up to the place Yahweh your God chooses, 9and go to the Levitical priests and to the judge in office at that time. Inquire of them, and they will declare to you the verdict. 10Act according to the verdict they declare to you from that place Yahweh chooses, and carefully do everything they instruct you. 11Act according to the law they teach you and the ruling they give you; do not turn aside from what they declare to you, to the right or to the left. 12Anyone who acts presumptuously, refusing to listen to the priest who stands there ministering to Yahweh your God, or to the judge, is to die. You must purge the evil from Israel. 13Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and they will no longer act presumptuously.
The law of the king
14When you come into the land Yahweh your God is giving you, and you possess it and settle in it, and you say, “Let me set a king over me like all the nations around me,” 15be sure to set over yourself the king Yahweh your God chooses. He must be one of your own brothers; you may not set a foreigner over yourself, one who is not your brother. 16Only he must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself, or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for Yahweh has told you, “You are never to go back that way again.” 17He must not acquire many wives for himself, or his heart will be led astray; nor must he acquire vast amounts of silver and gold. 18When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll, in the presence of the Levitical priests, 19and it is to remain with him; he is to read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God and keep all the words of this law and these statutes, and do them — 20so that his heart is not lifted up above his brothers, and he does not turn from the commandment, to the right or to the left, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel.
