The Penalty for Idolatry

²¹ Do not set up any kind of wooden Asherah pole beside the altar of the Lord your God that you have made for yourself. ²² Do not set up for yourself a sacred memorial stone, which is something that the Lord your God hates.

17 Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God any ox or sheep that has any kind of defect or serious flaw, because that is something detestable to the Lord your God.

² If there is found among you (within the gates of one of your cities that the Lord your God is giving you) a man or a woman who is doing something that is evil in the eyes of the Lord your God by transgressing his covenant, ³ or a man or a woman who is going and serving other gods and bowing down to them or to the sun or to the moon or to any of the army of the heavens, something that I have not commanded, ⁴ and you are told about it and you listen and investigate diligently, and it is established that the charge is true and that this abomination has been committed in Israel, ⁵ then you are to bring that man or that woman who has committed this evil out to your city gate, and you are to stone that person to death, whether man or woman.

⁶ A person is to be put to death on the basis of the testimony of two or three witnesses. No one is to be put to death based on the testimony of one witness. ⁷ The hands of the witnesses are to be the first ones raised against him when putting him to death, and after that the hands of all the other people. In that way you are to purge the evil from among you.