Deuteronomy 17
New English Translation
17 You must not sacrifice to him[a] a bull or sheep that has a blemish or any other defect, because that is considered offensive[b] to the Lord your God. 2 Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you in one of your villages[c] that the Lord your God is giving you who sins before the Lord your God[d] and breaks his covenant 3 by serving other gods and worshiping them—the sun,[e] moon, or any other heavenly bodies that I have not permitted you to worship.[f] 4 When it is reported to you and you hear about it, you must investigate carefully. If it is indeed true that such a disgraceful thing[g] is being done in Israel, 5 you must bring to your city gates[h] that man or woman who has done this wicked thing—that very man or woman—and you must stone that person to death.[i] 6 At the testimony of two or three witnesses the person must be executed. They cannot be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. 7 The witnesses[j] must be first to begin the execution, and then all the people[k] are to join in afterward. In this way you will purge the evil from among you.
Appeal to a Higher Court
8 If a matter is too difficult for you to judge—bloodshed,[l] legal claim,[m] or assault[n]—matters of controversy in your villages[o]—you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses.[p] 9 You will go to the Levitical priests and the judge in office in those days and seek a solution; they will render a verdict. 10 You must then do as they have determined at that place the Lord chooses. Be careful to do just as you are taught. 11 You must do what you are instructed, and the verdict they pronounce to you, without fail. Do not deviate right or left from what they tell you. 12 The person who pays no attention[q] to the priest currently serving the Lord your God there, or to the judge—that person must die, so that you may purge evil from Israel. 13 Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and not be so presumptuous again.
Provision for Kingship
14 When you come to the land the Lord your God is giving you and take it over and live in it and then say, “I will select a king like all the nations surrounding me,” 15 you must select without fail[r] a king whom the Lord your God chooses. From among your fellow citizens[s] you must appoint a king—you may not designate a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites.[t] 16 Moreover, he must not accumulate horses for himself or allow the people to return to Egypt to do so,[u] for the Lord has said you must never again return that way. 17 Furthermore, he must not marry many[v] wives lest his affections turn aside, and he must not accumulate much silver and gold. 18 When he sits on his royal throne he must make a copy of this law[w] on a scroll[x] given to him by the Levitical priests. 19 It must be with him constantly, and he must read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and observe all the words of this law and these statutes and carry them out. 20 Then he will not exalt himself above his fellow citizens or turn from the commandments to the right or left, and he and his descendants will enjoy many years ruling over his kingdom[y] in Israel.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 17:1 tn Heb “to the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.
- Deuteronomy 17:1 tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (toʿevah, “an abomination”; cf. NAB) describes persons, things, or practices offensive to ritual or moral order. See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:314-18; see also the note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.
- Deuteronomy 17:2 tn Heb “gates.”
- Deuteronomy 17:2 tn Heb “does the evil in the eyes of the Lord your God.”
- Deuteronomy 17:3 tc The MT reads “and to the sun,” thus including the sun, the moon, and other heavenly spheres among the gods. However, Theodotion and Lucian read “or to the sun,” suggesting perhaps that the sun and the other heavenly bodies are not in the category of actual deities.
- Deuteronomy 17:3 tn Heb “which I have not commanded you.” The words “to worship” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
- Deuteronomy 17:4 tn Heb “an abomination” (תּוֹעֵבָה); see note on the word “offensive” in v. 1.
- Deuteronomy 17:5 tn Heb “gates.”
- Deuteronomy 17:5 tn Heb “stone them with stones so that they die” (KJV similar); NCV “throw stones at that person until he dies.”
- Deuteronomy 17:7 tn Heb “the hand of the witnesses.” This means the two or three witnesses are to throw the first stones (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
- Deuteronomy 17:7 tn Heb “the hand of all the people.”
- Deuteronomy 17:8 tn Heb “between blood and blood.”
- Deuteronomy 17:8 tn Heb “between claim and claim.”
- Deuteronomy 17:8 tn Heb “between blow and blow.”
- Deuteronomy 17:8 tn Heb “gates.”
- Deuteronomy 17:8 tc Several Greek recensions add “to place his name there,” thus completing the usual formula to describe the central sanctuary (cf. Deut 12:5, 11, 14, 18; 16:6). However, the context suggests that the local Levitical towns, and not the central sanctuary, are in mind.
- Deuteronomy 17:12 tn Heb “who acts presumptuously not to listen” (cf. NASB).
- Deuteronomy 17:15 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, indicated in the translation by the words “without fail.”
- Deuteronomy 17:15 tn Heb “your brothers,” but not referring to siblings (cf. NIV “your brother Israelites”; NLT “a fellow Israelite”). The same phrase also occurs in v. 20.
- Deuteronomy 17:15 tn Heb “your brothers.” See the preceding note on “fellow citizens.”
- Deuteronomy 17:16 tn Heb “in order to multiply horses.” The translation uses “do so” in place of “multiply horses” to avoid redundancy (cf. NAB, NIV).
- Deuteronomy 17:17 tn Heb “must not multiply” (cf. KJV, NASB); NLT “must not take many.”
- Deuteronomy 17:18 tn Or “instruction.” The LXX reads here τὸ δευτερονόμιον τοῦτο (to deuteronomion touto, “this second law”). From this Greek phrase the present name of the book, “Deuteronomy” or “second law” (i.e., the second giving of the law), is derived. However, the MT’s expression מִשְׁנֶה הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת (mishneh hattorah hazzoʾt) is better rendered “copy of this law.” Here the term תּוֹרָה (torah) probably refers only to the book of Deuteronomy and not to the whole Pentateuch.
- Deuteronomy 17:18 tn The Hebrew term סֵפֶר (sefer) means a “writing” or “document” and could be translated “book” (so KJV, ASV, TEV). However, since “book” carries the connotation of a modern bound book with pages (an obvious anachronism) it is preferable to render the Hebrew term “scroll” here and elsewhere.
- Deuteronomy 17:20 tc Heb “upon his kingship.” Smr supplies כִּסֵא (kiseʾ, “throne”) so as to read “upon the throne of his kingship.” This overliteralizes what is a clearly understood figure of speech.
Deuteronomy 17
World English Bible
17 You shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or a sheep in which is a defect or anything evil; for that is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
2 If there is found among you, within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, a man or woman who does that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight in transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the stars of the sky, which I have not commanded, 4 and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to your gates, even that same man or woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones. 6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. 7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
8 If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise, and go up to the place which Yahweh your God chooses. 9 You shall come to the priests who are Levites and to the judge who shall be in those days. You shall inquire, and they shall give you the verdict. 10 You shall do according to the decisions of the verdict which they shall give you from that place which Yahweh chooses. You shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you. 11 According to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn away from the sentence which they announce to you, to the right hand, nor to the left. 12 The man who does presumptuously in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. You shall put away the evil from Israel. 13 All the people shall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously.
14 When you have come to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,” 15 you shall surely set him whom Yahweh your God chooses as king over yourselves. You shall set as king over you one from among your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, “You shall not go back that way again.” 17 He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
18 It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the Levitical priests. 19 It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; 20 that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn away 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 middle of Israel.
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