Deuteronomy 16:18-17:13

New King James Version

Justice Must Be Administered

¹⁸ “You shall appoint ^(A)judges and officers in all your ^[a]gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. ^19 (B)You shall not pervert justice; ^(C)you shall not ^[b]show partiality, ^(D)nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and ^[c]twists the words of the righteous. ²⁰ You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may ^(E)live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

^21 (F)“You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a ^[d]wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the Lord your God. ^22 (G)You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the Lord your God hates.

Various Instructions

17 “You ^(H)shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has any ^[e]blemish or defect, for that is an ^[f]abomination to the Lord your God.

^2 (I)“If there is found among you, within any of your ^[g]gates which the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the Lord your God, ^(J)in transgressing His covenant, ³ who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either ^(K)the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, ^(L)which I have not commanded, ^4 (M)and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an ^[h]abomination has been committed in Israel, ⁵ then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and ^(N)shall stone ^(O)to death that man or woman with stones. ⁶ Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three ^(P)witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. ⁷ The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among ^(Q)you.

^8 (R)“If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the ^(S)place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ And ^(T)you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and ^(U)to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; ^(V)they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment. ¹⁰ You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the Lord chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you. ¹¹ According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you. ¹² Now ^(W)the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. ^13 (X)And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.