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Deuteronomy 16:21-18:22
New International Version
Deuteronomy 16:21-18:22
New International Version
Worshiping Other Gods
21 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole(A) beside the altar you build to the Lord your God,(B) 22 and do not erect a sacred stone,(C) for these the Lord your God hates.
17 Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect(D) or flaw in it, for that would be detestable(E) to him.(F)
2 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,(G) 3 and contrary to my command(H) has worshiped other gods,(I) bowing down to them or to the sun(J) or the moon or the stars in the sky,(K) 4 and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true(L) and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,(M) 5 take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.(N) 6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.(O) 7 The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death,(P) and then the hands of all the people.(Q) You must purge the evil(R) from among you.
Law Courts
8 If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge(S)—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults(T)—take them to the place the Lord your God will choose.(U) 9 Go to the Levitical(V) priests and to the judge(W) who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.(X) 10 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. 11 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.(Y) 12 Anyone who shows contempt(Z) for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering(AA) there to the Lord your God is to be put to death.(AB) You must purge the evil from Israel.(AC) 13 All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.(AD)
The King
14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession(AE) of it and settled in it,(AF) and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”(AG) 15 be sure to appoint(AH) over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites.(AI) Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. 16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses(AJ) for himself(AK) or make the people return to Egypt(AL) to get more of them,(AM) for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”(AN) 17 He must not take many wives,(AO) or his heart will be led astray.(AP) He must not accumulate(AQ) large amounts of silver and gold.(AR)
18 When he takes the throne(AS) of his kingdom, he is to write(AT) for himself on a scroll a copy(AU) of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life(AV) so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees(AW) 20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law(AX) to the right or to the left.(AY) Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.(AZ)
Offerings for Priests and Levites
18 The Levitical(BA) priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings(BB) presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance.(BC) 2 They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance,(BD) as he promised them.(BE)
3 This is the share due the priests(BF) from the people who sacrifice a bull(BG) or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head.(BH) 4 You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,(BI) 5 for the Lord your God has chosen them(BJ) and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister(BK) in the Lord’s name always.(BL)
6 If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the Lord will choose,(BM) 7 he may minister in the name(BN) of the Lord his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord. 8 He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.(BO)
Occult Practices
9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate(BP) the detestable ways(BQ) of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire,(BR) who practices divination(BS) or sorcery,(BT) interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,(BU) 11 or casts spells,(BV) or who is a medium or spiritist(BW) or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.(BX) 13 You must be blameless(BY) before the Lord your God.(BZ)
The Prophet
14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination.(CA) But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so. 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites.(CB) You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”(CC)
17 The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet(CD) like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words(CE) in his mouth.(CF) He will tell them everything I command him.(CG) 19 I myself will call to account(CH) anyone who does not listen(CI) to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.(CJ) 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods,(CK) is to be put to death.”(CL)
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true,(CM) that is a message the Lord has not spoken.(CN) That prophet has spoken presumptuously,(CO) so do not be alarmed.
Deuteronomy 16:21-18:22
King James Version
Deuteronomy 16:21-18:22
King James Version
21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee.
22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the Lord thy God hateth.
17 Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the Lord thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evilfavouredness: for that is an abomination unto the Lord thy God.
2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.
8 If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose;
9 And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:
10 And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:
11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.
12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.
13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.
14 When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;
15 Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.
18 The priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and his inheritance.
2 Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the Lord is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.
3 And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.
4 The firstfruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him.
5 For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever.
6 And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the Lord shall choose;
7 Then he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the Lord.
8 They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.
9 When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
13 Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.
14 For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
15 The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
16 According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
17 And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
20 But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
21 And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?
22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.
New International Version (NIV) 
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