17 ^(A)“You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.

^2 (B)“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, ^(C)in transgressing his covenant, ³ and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or ^(D)the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, ^(E)which I have forbidden, ⁴ and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire ^(F)diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, ⁵ then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you ^(G)shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. ^6 (H)On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. ^7 (I)The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So ^(J)you shall purge^[a] the evil^[b] from your midst.

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

⁸ “If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to ^(K)the place that the Lord your God will choose. ^9 (L)And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and ^(M)they shall declare to you the decision. ¹⁰ Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. ¹¹ According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. ¹² The man who ^(N)acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest ^(O)who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So ^(P)you shall purge the evil from Israel. ¹³ And all the people ^(Q)shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.

Laws Concerning Israel's Kings

¹⁴ “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ^(R)‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵ you may indeed set a king over you ^(S)whom the Lord your God will choose. One ^(T)from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶ Only he must not acquire many ^(U)horses for himself or cause the people ^(V)to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ^(W)‘You shall never return that way again.’ ¹⁷ And he ^(X)shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, ^(Y)nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

¹⁸ “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, ^(Z)he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, ^(AA)approved by^[c] the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ And ^(AB)it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, ^(AC)that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, ²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he ^(AD)may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, ^(AE)so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

Provision for Priests and Levites

18 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, ^(AF)shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They ^(AG)shall eat the Lord's food offerings^[d] as their^[e] inheritance. ² They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. ³ And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: ^(AH)they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. ^4 (AI)The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. ⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes ^(AJ)to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.

⁶ “And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, ^(AK)where he lives—and he may come when he desires^[f]—^(AL)to the place that the Lord will choose, ⁷ and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, ^(AM)like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, ⁸ then he may have equal ^(AN)portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.^[g]

Abominable Practices

⁹ “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, ^(AO)you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone ^(AP)who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,^[h] anyone who ^(AQ)practices divination or ^(AR)tells fortunes or interprets omens, or ^(AS)a sorcerer ¹¹ or a charmer or ^(AT)a medium or a necromancer or ^(AU)one who inquires of the dead, ^12 (AV)for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And ^(AW)because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. ¹³ You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, ¹⁴ for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

A New Prophet like Moses

^15 (AX)“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶ just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb ^(AY)on the day of the assembly, when you said, ^(AZ)‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, ^(BA)‘They are right in what they have spoken. ^18 (BB)I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. ^(BC)And I will put my words in his mouth, and ^(BD)he shall speak to them all that I command him. ^19 (BE)And whoever will ^(BF)not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. ^20 (BG)But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or^[i] who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ ²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— ^22 (BH)when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; ^(BI)the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

The Crucifixion

^21 (A)And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. ^22 (B)And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). ²³ And they offered him wine mixed with ^(C)myrrh, but he did not take it. ²⁴ And they crucified him and ^(D)divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. ²⁵ And ^(E)it was the third hour^[a] when they crucified him. ²⁶ And the inscription of the charge against him read, ^(F)“The King of the Jews.” ²⁷ And with him they crucified two ^(G)robbers, ^(H)one on his right and one on his left.^{[b] 29} And ^(I)those who passed by derided him, ^(J)wagging their heads and saying, ^(K)“Aha! ^(L)You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, ³⁰ save yourself, and come down from the cross!” ³¹ So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, ^(M)“He saved others; ^(N)he cannot save himself. ³² Let ^(O)the Christ, ^(P)the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may ^(Q)see and believe.” ^(R)Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

The Death of Jesus

³³ And when the sixth hour^[c] had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.^{[d] 34} And at the ninth hour Jesus ^(S)cried with a loud voice, ^(T)“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ³⁵ And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” ³⁶ And someone ran and filled a sponge with ^(U)sour wine, put it on a reed ^(V)and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” ³⁷ And Jesus ^(W)uttered a loud cry and ^(X)breathed his last. ³⁸ And ^(Y)the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. ^39 (Z)And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he^[e] breathed his last, he said, ^(AA)“Truly this man was the Son^[f] of God!”

⁴⁰ There were also ^(AB)women looking on ^(AC)from a distance, among whom were ^(AD)Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and ^(AE)Salome. ⁴¹ When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ^(AF)ministered to him, and there were also many other women who ^(AG)came up with him to Jerusalem.

Jesus Is Buried

^42 (AH)And when evening had come, since it was ^(AI)the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, ⁴³ Joseph of Arimathea, ^(AJ)a respected member of the council, who ^(AK)was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died.^[g] And summoning ^(AL)the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. ⁴⁵ And when he learned from ^(AM)the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. ⁴⁶ And Joseph^[h] bought ^(AN)a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and ^(AO)laid him in a tomb ^(AP)that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled ^(AQ)a stone against the entrance of the tomb. ^47 (AR)Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.