171 " You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect , for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God . 2 " If there is found in your midst , in any of your 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 transgressing His covenant , 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host , which I have not commanded , 4 and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly . Behold , if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel , 5 then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates , that is, the man or the woman , and you shall stone them to death . 6 " On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses , he who is to die shall be put to death ; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness . 7 " The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death , and afterward the hand of all the people . So you shall purge the evil from your midst .
8 " If any case is too difficult for you to decide , between one kind of homicide or another , between one kind of lawsuit or another , and between one kind of assault or another , being cases of dispute in your courts , then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God chooses . 9 "So you shall come to the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days , and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case . 10 "You shall do according to the terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses ; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you. 11 " According to the terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall do ; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left . 12 "The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God , nor to the judge , that man shall die ; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel . 13 "Then all the people will hear and be afraid , and will not act presumptuously again .
14 "When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say , ' I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,' 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses , one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman . 16 " Moreover , he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses , since the Lord has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way .' 17 " He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will 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 , he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests . 19 "It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life , that he may learn to fear the Lord his God , by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes , 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment , to the right or the left , so that he and his sons may continue long e in his kingdom in the midst of Israel .
