Deuteronomy 16-17

New American Standard Bible

The Feasts of Passover, of Weeks, and of Booths

16 “Observe ^(A)the month of Abib and ^[a]^(B)celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ²You shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where the Lord chooses to establish His name. ³^(C)You shall not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in a hurry), so that you will remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt ^(D)all the days of your life. ⁴For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in your entire territory, and ^(E)none of the meat which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall be left overnight until the morning. ⁵You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your ^[b]towns which the Lord your God is giving you; ⁶but only ^(F)at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name, you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt. ⁷You shall ^(G)cook and eat it in the place which the Lord your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents. ⁸For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and ^(H)on the seventh day there shall be ^(I)a festive assembly to the Lord your God; you shall do no work on it.

⁹“^(J)You shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. ¹⁰Then you shall ^[c]celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with a ^[d]voluntary offering of your hand in a proportional amount, which you shall give just as the Lord your God blesses you; ¹¹and you shall ^(K)rejoice before the Lord your God, you, your son and your daughter, and your male and female slaves, and ^(L)the Levite who is in your ^[e]town, and ^(M)the stranger, the ^[f]orphan, and the widow who are in your midst, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. ¹²^(N)You shall also remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful and ^[g]comply with these statutes.

¹³“^(O)You shall ^[h]celebrate the Feast of ^[i]Booths for seven days when you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; ¹⁴and you shall ^(P)rejoice in your feast, you, your son and your daughter, and your male and female slaves, and the Levite, the stranger, the ^[j]orphan, and the widow who are in your ^[k]towns. ¹⁵For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

¹⁶“^(Q)Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths; and ^(R)they are not to appear before the Lord empty-handed. ¹⁷Everyone ^[l]shall give as he is able, in accordance with the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.

¹⁸“You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your ^[m]towns which the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ¹⁹^(S)You shall not distort justice, ^(T)you shall not ^[n]show partiality; and ^(U)you shall not accept a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the words of the righteous. ²⁰Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that ^(V)you may live and possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

²¹“^(W)You shall not plant for yourself an ^[o]Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the Lord your God, which you shall make for yourself. ²²And ^(X)you shall not set up for yourself a memorial stone, which the Lord your God hates.

Administration of Justice

17 “^(Y)You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any ^[p]defect, for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God.

²“^(Z)If there is found in your midst, in any of your ^[q]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, ³and that person has gone and ^(AA)served other gods and worshiped them, ^(AB)or the sun, the moon, or any of the heavenly ^[r]lights, ^(AC)which I have commanded not to do, ⁴and if it is reported to you and you have heard about it, then you shall investigate thoroughly. And ^[s]if it is true and the report is trustworthy that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, ⁵then 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 ^(AD)you shall stone them to ^[t]death. ⁶^(AE)On the ^[u]testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses, the ^[v]condemned shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the ^[w]testimony of only one witness. ⁷^(AF)The hands of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. ^(AG)So you shall eliminate the evil from your midst.

⁸“^(AH)If a case is too difficult for you to decide, between ^[x]one kind of homicide or another, between ^[y]one kind of lawsuit or another, and between ^[z]one kind of assault or another, that are cases of dispute in your ^[aa]courts, then you shall arise and go up to ^(AI)the place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹So you shall come to ^(AJ)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 ^[ab]verdict. ¹⁰Then you shall act in accordance with the ^[ac]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^(AK)In accordance with the ^[ad]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. ¹²But the person who acts ^(AL)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. ¹³Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act ^(AM)insolently again.

¹⁴“When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you ^(AN)take possession of it and live in it, and you say, ‘^(AO)I will appoint a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ¹⁵you shall in fact appoint a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One ^(AP)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^(AQ)In any case, he is not to acquire many horses for himself, nor shall he ^(AR)make the people return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since ^(AS)the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ ¹⁷And ^(AT)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 ^[ae]^(AU)in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹And it shall be with him, and he shall read it ^(AV)all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear the Lord his God, ^[af]by carefully following all the words of this Law and these statutes, ²⁰so that his heart will not be haughty toward his countrymen, ^(AW)and that he will not turn away from the commandment to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may ^[ag]live long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.