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Administration of Justice

¹ "^(C1)You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any ^(F1)defect, for that is a detestable thing to the LORD your God.

² "^(C1)If there is found in your midst, in any of your ^(F1)towns which the LORD your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, by violating His covenant,³ and that person has gone and ^(C1)served other gods and worshiped them, ^(C2)or the sun, the moon, or any of the heavenly ^(F1)lights, ^(C3)which I have commanded not to do,⁴ and if it is reported to you and you have heard about it, then you shall investigate thoroughly. And ^(F1)if it is true and the report is trustworthy that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,⁵ then you are to bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil deed, that is, the man or the woman, and ^(C1)you shall stone them to ^(F1)death.⁶ "^(C1)On the ^(F1)testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses, the ^(F2)condemned shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the ^(F1)testimony of only one witness.⁷ "^(C1)The hands of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. ^(C2)So you shall eliminate the evil from your midst.

⁸ "^(C1)If a case is too difficult for you to decide, between ^(F1)one kind of homicide or another, between ^(F2)one kind of lawsuit or another, and between ^(F3)one kind of assault or another, that are cases of dispute in your ^(F4)courts, then you shall arise and go up to ^(C2)the place which the LORD your God chooses.⁹ "So you shall come to ^(C1)the Levitical priests or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the ^(F1)verdict.¹⁰ "Then you shall act in accordance with the ^(F1)terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the LORD chooses; and you shall be careful to act in accordance with everything that they instruct you to do.¹¹ "^(C1)In accordance with the ^(F1)terms of the law about which they instruct you, and in accordance with the verdict which they tell you, you shall act; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left.¹² "But the person who acts ^(C1)insolently by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, nor to the judge, that person shall die; so you shall eliminate the evil from Israel.¹³ "Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act ^(C1)insolently again.

¹⁴ "When you enter the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and you ^(C1)take possession of it and live in it, and you say, '^(C2)I will appoint a king over me like all the nations who are around me,'¹⁵ you shall in fact appoint a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses. One ^(C1)from among your countrymen you shall appoint as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves, anyone who is not your countryman.¹⁶ "^(C1)In any case, he is not to acquire many horses for himself, nor shall he ^(C2)make the people return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since ^(C3)the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.'¹⁷ "And ^(C1)he shall not acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ "Now it shall come about, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Law on a scroll ^(F1)(C1)in the presence of the Levitical priests.¹⁹ "And it shall be with him, and he shall read it ^(C1)all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear the LORD his God, ^(F1)by carefully following all the words of this Law and these statutes,²⁰ so that his heart will not be haughty toward his countrymen, ^(C1)and that he will not turn away from the commandment to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may ^(F1)live long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.