Deuteronomy 17-19
Lexham English Bible
17 “You shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or sheep that has a physical defect[a] of anything seriously wrong,[b] for that is a detestable thing to Yahweh your God. 2 If there is found in one of your towns[c] that Yahweh your God is giving to you a man or a woman that does evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God to transgress his covenant 3 and by going and serving other gods and so he bows down to them and to the sun or to the moon or to any of the host of heaven which I have forbidden,[d] 4 and it is reported to you or you hear about it and you enquire about it thoroughly and, indeed,[e] the trustworthiness of the deed[f] has been established, it has occurred,[g] this detestable thing, in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has[h] done this evil thing to your gates; that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them with stones to death.[i] 6 On the evidence of[j] two or three witnesses the person shall be put to death.[k] The person[l] shall not be put to death by the mouth of one witness. 7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first against the person[m] to kill the person,[n] and afterward the hands[o] of all the people, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.
8 “If a matter is too difficult for you,[p] for example disputes between blood and blood,[q] between legal claim and legal claim[r] and between assault and assault[s] and between matters of discernment in your towns,[t] then you shall get up and you shall go to the place that Yahweh your God will choose; 9 then you shall go to the priests and the Levites and to the judge who will be in office in those days, and you shall enquire, and they shall announce to you the verdict.[u]
10 “And you shall carry out exactly the decision[v] that they announced to you from that place that Yahweh will choose, and you shall diligently observe[w] according to all that they instruct you. 11 And so according to the instruction of the law[x] that they teach you and according to the decisions that they say to you, you shall do; you shall not turn from the word that they tell you to the right or to the left. 12 And the man who treats with contempt[y] so as not to listen to the priest who is standing to minister on behalf of Yahweh your God or to the judge, that man shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people will hear and will be afraid, and they will not behave presumptuously again.
14 “When you have come to that land that Yahweh your God is giving to you and you have taken possession of it and you have settled in it, and you say, ‘I will set over me a king like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 indeed, you may set a king over you whom Yahweh your God will choose, from the midst of your countrymen[z] you must set a king over you; you are not allowed to appoint over you a man, a foreigner, who is not your countryman.[aa] 16 Except, he may not make numerous[ab] for himself horses, and he may not allow the people to to go to Egypt in order to increase horses,[ac] for Yahweh has said to you that you may never return.[ad] 17 And he must not acquire many[ae] wives for himself, so that his heart would turn aside; and he must not accumulate silver and gold for himself excessively.[af]
18 “And then[ag] when he is sitting[ah] on the throne of his kingdom, then he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll before[ai] the Levitical priests. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read it[aj] all the days of his life, so that he may learn to revere Yahweh your God by diligently observing[ak] all the word of this law and these rules, 20 so as not to exalt his heart above his countrymen[al] and not to turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left, so that he may reign long over his kingdom,[am] he and his children in the midst of Israel.”
18 “And there shall not be for the Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, a plot of ground and an inheritance with Israel, rather they may eat an offering made by fire as their inheritance,[an] for Yahweh. 2 And there shall not be for them[ao] an inheritance of land in the midst of his brothers; rather Yahweh is his inheritance, just as he promised[ap] to them.[aq]
3 Now this shall be the share of the priest from the people, from those who sacrifice the sacrifice,[ar] whether it is an ox, sheep, or goat, and they shall give the priest the shoulder and the jawbones and the stomach. 4 The firstfruits[as] of your grain, your wine, and your olive oil and the firstfruits[at] of the fleece of your sheep you shall give to him. 5 For Yahweh your God has chosen him from among all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of Yahweh, he and his sons forever.[au]
6 And if a[av] Levite comes from one of your towns[aw] from anywhere in Israel[ax] where he is residing, he may come whenever he desires,[ay] to the place that Yahweh will choose, 7 and he may minister in the name of Yahweh his God, just like all his brothers, the Levites who stand there[az] before[ba] Yahweh. 8 They shall eat equal portions,[bb] apart from what he may receive from the sale of his patrimony.[bc]
9 “When you come to the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you, you must not learn to do like the detestable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or one who practices divination,[bd] or an interpreter of signs,[be] or an augur,[bf] or sorcerer, 11 or one who casts magic spells, or one who consults a spirit of the dead,[bg] or spiritist, or one who inquires of the dead.[bh] 12 For everyone doing these things is detestable to Yahweh, and because of these detestable things Yahweh your God is driving them out from before you.[bi] 13 You must be blameless before Yahweh your God. 14 For these nations that you are about to dispossess listen to interpreters of signs[bj] and to diviners, but Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do the same.
15 “Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your countrymen,[bk] and to him you shall listen. 16 This is according to all that you asked[bl] from Yahweh your God at Horeb, on the day of the assembly, saying,[bm] ‘I do not want again to hear[bn] the voice of Yahweh my God, and I do not want to see again this great fire, so that I may not die!’ 17 And Yahweh said to me, ‘They are right in what they have said. 18 I will raise up a prophet for them from among their countrymen[bo] like you, and I will place[bp] my words into his mouth, and he shall speak to them everything that I command him.[bq] 19 And then[br] the man that will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I will hold accountable. 20 However, the prophet that behaves presumptuously by speaking a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, and who speaks in the name of other gods, then that prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say to yourself,[bs] ‘How can we know the word that Yahweh has not spoken to him?’ 22 Whenever what the prophet spoke in the name of Yahweh, the thing does not take place and does not come about, that is the thing that Yahweh has not spoken to him.[bt] Presumptuously the prophet spoke it; you shall not fear that[bu] prophet.”
19 “When Yahweh your God has exterminated[bv] the nations concerning whom Yahweh your God is giving to you their land, and you have dispossessed them, and you have settled in their towns and in their houses, 2 you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God is giving to you to take possession of it. 3 You shall prepare the roads[bw] for yourselves, and you shall divide the regions of your land into thirds that Yahweh your God gives you as a possession, so that it will be available for any manslayer to flee there.[bx]
4 “Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live there who has killed his neighbor unintentionally,[by] and he did not hate him previously.[bz] 5 For example,[ca] when somebody goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut wood, and the iron head slips from the handle of the tool and strikes his neighbor and he dies, then he may flee to one of these cities, and so he may live. 6 He does this lest the avenger of blood might pursue after the killer, because he is hot with anger[cb] and he overtakes him, because it is a long distance to the city of refuge, and so he kills him,[cc] but he did not deserve a death sentence,[cd] because he was not hating him before.[ce] 7 Therefore I am commanding you, saying,[cf] ‘You shall set apart three cities.’ 8 Then if Yahweh your God enlarges your territory just as he swore to your ancestors[cg] and gives[ch] to you all the land that he promised[ci] to give to your ancestors,[cj] 9 then if you diligently observe this entire commandment[ck] that I am commanding you today[cl] by loving Yahweh your God and by going[cm] in his ways at all times,[cn] then you shall add three more cities for yourselves to these three. 10 Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed[co] in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God is giving to you as an inheritance and thereby bloodguilt would be on you.[cp]
11 But if someone hates[cq] his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up[cr] against him and murders him,[cs] and the murderer flees to one of these cities, 12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and they shall give him into the hand of the avenger of blood, and he shall be put to death. 13 Your eye shall not take pity on him, and you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that good will be directed toward you.[ct]
14 “You shall not move the boundary marker of your neighbor that former generations[cu] set up on your property in the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you to take possession of it. 15 The testimony of a single witness may not be used to convict[cv] with respect to any crime and for any wrongdoing in any offense that a person[cw] committed; on the evidence[cx] of two witnesses or on the evidence[cy] of three witnesses a charge shall be sustained.[cz] 16 If a malicious witness[da] gets up to accuse[db] anyone to testify against him falsely, 17 then the two men to whom the legal dispute pertains[dc] shall stand before[dd] Yahweh, before[de] the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18 Then judges shall make a thorough inquiry, and if it turns out[df] that the witness is a false witness and he testified falsely against his brother, 19 then you shall do to him as he meant[dg] to do to his brother, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest[dh] shall hear and shall fear, and they shall not continue to do such a thing again[di] as this evil thing in your midst. 21 You must show no pity:[dj] life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 17:1 Literally “that is on it a physical defect”
- Deuteronomy 17:1 Literally “of any thing bad/evil”
- Deuteronomy 17:2 Literally “gates”
- Deuteronomy 17:3 Literally “which not I have commanded”
- Deuteronomy 17:4 Or “look!”
- Deuteronomy 17:4 Hebrew “the thing”
- Deuteronomy 17:4 Literally “has been done”
- Deuteronomy 17:5 Hebrew “have”
- Deuteronomy 17:5 Literally “and so they die”
- Deuteronomy 17:6 Literally “By the mouth of”
- Deuteronomy 17:6 Literally “he/she shall be put to death, the dead person”
- Deuteronomy 17:6 Hebrew “he/she”
- Deuteronomy 17:7 Hebrew “him”
- Deuteronomy 17:7 Hebrew “him”
- Deuteronomy 17:7 Hebrew “hand”
- Deuteronomy 17:8 Literally “If is difficult/wonderful from you a thing for judgment”
- Deuteronomy 17:8 Or “between one homicide and another”
- Deuteronomy 17:8 Or “one kind of lawsuit and another”
- Deuteronomy 17:8 Or “one kind of abuse and another”
- Deuteronomy 17:8 Literally “gates”
- Deuteronomy 17:9 Literally “the word of the decision”
- Deuteronomy 17:10 Literally “and you shall do according to the mouth of the word”
- Deuteronomy 17:10 Literally “and you shall observe and do”
- Deuteronomy 17:11 Literally “mouth of the law”
- Deuteronomy 17:12 Or “acts presumptuously”
- Deuteronomy 17:15 Or “brothers”
- Deuteronomy 17:15 Or “brother”
- Deuteronomy 17:16 Literally “not multiply”
- Deuteronomy 17:16 Literally “in order to make numerous horse”
- Deuteronomy 17:16 Literally “not you may do again to return”
- Deuteronomy 17:17 Or “make numerous”
- Deuteronomy 17:17 Literally “gold and silver not he must make numerous for him very”
- Deuteronomy 17:18 Literally “And it shall happen”
- Deuteronomy 17:18 Literally “as/when his sitting”
- Deuteronomy 17:18 Literally “to the face of”
- Deuteronomy 17:19 Hebrew “in it”
- Deuteronomy 17:19 Literally “by keeping ... to do them”
- Deuteronomy 17:20 Or “brothers”
- Deuteronomy 17:20 Literally “he may make long his days over his kingdom”
- Deuteronomy 18:1 The meaning of the Hebrew text here is uncertain; possibly it reads: “rather an offering by fire then they will eat as their inheritance/patrimony”
- Deuteronomy 18:2 Hebrew “him”
- Deuteronomy 18:2 Literally “spoke”
- Deuteronomy 18:2 Hebrew “him”
- Deuteronomy 18:3 Literally “the sacrificers of the sacrifice”
- Deuteronomy 18:4 Hebrew “firstfruit”
- Deuteronomy 18:4 Hebrew “firstfruit”
- Deuteronomy 18:5 Literally “all of the days”
- Deuteronomy 18:6 Hebrew “the”
- Deuteronomy 18:6 Literally “gates”
- Deuteronomy 18:6 Literally “all of Israel”
- Deuteronomy 18:6 Literally “he may come in all the desire of his soul/inner self”
- Deuteronomy 18:7 Literally “the Levites the ones standing there”
- Deuteronomy 18:7 Literally “to the face of”
- Deuteronomy 18:8 Literally “a portion like a portion”
- Deuteronomy 18:8 Hebrew meaning of these phrases/words is not certain; also could translate as “except what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates” (NASB); or “what he may inherit from his father’s family”
- Deuteronomy 18:10 Literally “a diviner of divination”
- Deuteronomy 18:10 Or “soothsayer”
- Deuteronomy 18:10 Or “an interpreter of omens”
- Deuteronomy 18:11 Or “medium”
- Deuteronomy 18:11 Or “necromancer”
- Deuteronomy 18:12 Literally “the face of you”
- Deuteronomy 18:14 Or “practice witchcraft”
- Deuteronomy 18:15 Or “your brothers”
- Deuteronomy 18:16 Literally “just as all of that you asked”
- Deuteronomy 18:16 Literally “to say”
- Deuteronomy 18:16 Literally “not I want to do again to hear”
- Deuteronomy 18:18 Literally “from the midst of their brothers”
- Deuteronomy 18:18 Or “give”
- Deuteronomy 18:18 Literally “all of what I command him”
- Deuteronomy 18:19 Literally “And it will happen”
- Deuteronomy 18:21 Literally “in your heart”
- Deuteronomy 18:22 Or “that Yahweh has not spoken it”
- Deuteronomy 18:22 Hebrew “the”
- Deuteronomy 19:1 Literally “cut off”
- Deuteronomy 19:3 Hebrew “road”
- Deuteronomy 19:3 Literally “it shall be to flee there all/anyone killing”
- Deuteronomy 19:4 Literally “with no knowledge”
- Deuteronomy 19:4 Literally “from yesterday and the day before”
- Deuteronomy 19:5 Literally “And as”
- Deuteronomy 19:6 Literally “is hot his heart”
- Deuteronomy 19:6 Literally “he strikes him down as to his life/soul”
- Deuteronomy 19:6 Literally “for him there was not a judgment of death”
- Deuteronomy 19:6 Literally “from yesterday and the day before”
- Deuteronomy 19:7 Literally “to say”
- Deuteronomy 19:8 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 19:8 Hebrew “will give”
- Deuteronomy 19:8 Literally “spoke”
- Deuteronomy 19:8 Or “fathers”
- Deuteronomy 19:9 Literally “if you observe all of the commandment the this to do it”
- Deuteronomy 19:9 Literally “the day”
- Deuteronomy 19:9 Or “walking”
- Deuteronomy 19:9 Literally “all of the days”
- Deuteronomy 19:10 Hebrew “is not shed”
- Deuteronomy 19:10 Hebrew “shall be on you,” but conditional sense of imperfect is clear
- Deuteronomy 19:11 Hebrew “is hating”
- Deuteronomy 19:11 Or “gets up”
- Deuteronomy 19:11 Literally “and strikes him mortally with regard to his life and he dies”
- Deuteronomy 19:13 Literally “and good shall be for you” or “it shall be good for you”
- Deuteronomy 19:14 Literally “the first settlers/ancestors”
- Deuteronomy 19:15 Literally “Not shall get up only a single witness against a man”
- Deuteronomy 19:15 Hebrew “he”
- Deuteronomy 19:15 Literally “mouth”
- Deuteronomy 19:15 Literally “mouth”
- Deuteronomy 19:15 Literally “shall be established a case/charge”
- Deuteronomy 19:16 Literally “a witness of violence”
- Deuteronomy 19:16 Literally “against”
- Deuteronomy 19:17 Literally “who for them are the legal dispute”
- Deuteronomy 19:17 Literally “to the face of”
- Deuteronomy 19:17 Literally “to the face of”
- Deuteronomy 19:18 Or “in fact”
- Deuteronomy 19:19 Or “planned”
- Deuteronomy 19:20 Literally “and those remaining”
- Deuteronomy 19:20 Literally “and they shall not do again to do again”
- Deuteronomy 19:21 Literally “And not take pity your eye”
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