Deuteronomy 16:11   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name-you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you.

Deuteronomy 16:12   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

Deuteronomy 16:13   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.

Deuteronomy 16:14   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Be joyful at your festival-you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.

Deuteronomy 16:15   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.

Deuteronomy 16:16   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed:

Deuteronomy 16:17   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.

Deuteronomy 16:18   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly.

Deuteronomy 16:20   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Deuteronomy 16:21   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the Lord your God,

Deuteronomy 16:22   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the Lord your God hates.

Deuteronomy 17:1   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect or flaw in it, for that would be detestable to him.

Deuteronomy 17:2   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the Lord gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God in violation of his covenant,

Deuteronomy 17:4   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,

Deuteronomy 17:5   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.

Deuteronomy 17:7   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.

Deuteronomy 17:8   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge-whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults-take them to the place the Lord your God will choose.

Deuteronomy 17:9   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

Go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.

Deuteronomy 17:10   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the Lord will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do.

Deuteronomy 17:11   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.

Deuteronomy 17:12   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the Lord your God is to be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

Deuteronomy 17:14   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,"

Deuteronomy 17:15   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite.

Deuteronomy 17:16   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, "You are not to go back that way again."