Deuteronomy 17-20

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

17 You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or sheep with a blemish or any defect whatsoever, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.

² If there is found among you within any of your towns which the Lord your God gives you a man or woman who does what is wicked in the sight of the Lord your God by transgressing His covenant,

³ Who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or moon or any of the host of the heavens, which I have forbidden,

⁴ And it is told and you hear of it, then inquire diligently. And if it is certainly true that such an abomination has been committed in Israel,

⁵ Then you shall bring forth to your town’s gates that man or woman who has done that wicked thing and you shall stone that man or woman to death.

⁶ On the evidence of two or three witnesses he who is worthy of death shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence 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 purge the evil from among you.

⁸ If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment—between one kind of bloodshed and another, between one legality and another, between one kind of assault and another, matters of controversy within your towns—then arise and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses.

⁹ And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them and they shall make clear to you the decision.

¹⁰ And you shall do according to the decision which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be watchful to do according to all that they tell you;

¹¹ According to the decision of the law which they shall teach you and the judgment which they shall announce to you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the verdict they give you, ^[a]either to the right hand or the left.

¹² The man who does presumptuously and will not listen to the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God or to the judge, that man shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.

¹³ And all the people shall hear and [reverently] fear, and not act presumptuously again.

¹⁴ When you come to the land which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it and live there, and then say, We will set a king over us like all the nations that are about us,

¹⁵ You shall surely set as king over you him whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner, who is not your brother, over you.

¹⁶ But he shall not multiply horses to himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses, since the Lord said to you, You shall never return that way.

¹⁷ And he shall not multiply wives to himself, that his [mind and] heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

¹⁸ And when he sits on his royal throne, he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, out of what is before the Levitical priests.

¹⁹ And he shall keep it with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn [reverently] to fear the Lord his God, by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them,

²⁰ That his [mind and] heart may not be lifted up above his brethren and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left; so that he may continue long, he and his sons, in his kingdom in Israel.

18 The Levitical priests and all the tribe of Levi shall have no part or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings made by fire to the Lord, and His rightful dues.

² They shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He promised them.

³ And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.

⁴ The firstfruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first or best of the fleece of your sheep you shall give the priest.

⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name [and presence] of the Lord, him and his sons forever.

⁶ And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel where he is a temporary resident, he may come whenever he desires to [the sanctuary] the place the Lord will choose;

⁷ Then he may minister in the name [and presence of] the Lord his God like all his brethren the Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord.

⁸ They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what may come of the sale of his patrimony.^(A)

⁹ When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of these nations.

¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer,

¹¹ Or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

¹² For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and it is because of these abominable practices that the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

¹³ You shall be blameless [and absolutely true] to the Lord your God.

¹⁴ For these nations whom you shall dispossess listen to soothsayers and diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

¹⁵ The Lord your God will raise up for you ^[b]a prophet (Prophet) from the midst of your brethren like me [Moses]; to him you shall listen.^(B)

¹⁶ This is what you desired [and asked] of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.

¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, They have well said all that they have spoken.

¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet (Prophet) from among their brethren like you, and will put My words in his mouth; and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

¹⁹ And whoever will not hearken to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.

²⁰ But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.

²¹ And if you say in your [minds and] hearts, How shall we know which words the Lord has not spoken?

²² When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or prove true, that is a word which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

19 When the Lord your God has cut off the nations whose land the Lord your God gives you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,

² You shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess.

³ You shall prepare the road and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, so that any manslayer can flee to them.

⁴ And this is the case of the slayer who shall flee there in order that he may live. Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, for whom he had no enmity in time past—

⁵ As when a man goes into the wood with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand strikes with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips off the handle and lights on his neighbor and kills him—he may flee to one of those cities and live;

⁶ Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer while his [mind and] heart are hot with anger and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay him even though the slayer was not worthy of death, since he had not been at enmity with him previously.

⁷ Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three [refuge] cities.

⁸ And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as He has sworn to your fathers to do, and gives you all the land which He promised to your fathers to give,

⁹ If you keep all these commandments to do them, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to walk always in His ways, then you shall add three other cities to these three,

¹⁰ Lest innocent blood be shed in your land, which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and so blood guilt be upon you.

¹¹ But if any man hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, and attacks him and wounds him mortally so that he dies, and the assailant flees into one of these cities,

¹² Then the elders of his own city shall send for him and fetch him from there and give him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.

¹³ Your eyes shall not pity him, but you shall clear Israel of the guilt of innocent blood, that it may go well with you.

¹⁴ You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, which the men of old [the first dividers of the land] set.

¹⁵ One witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or any wrong in connection with any sin he commits; only on the testimony of two or three witnesses shall a charge be established.

¹⁶ If a false witness rises up against any man to accuse him of wrongdoing,

¹⁷ Then both parties to the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.

¹⁸ The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely,

¹⁹ Then you shall do to him as he had intended to do to his brother. So you shall put away the evil from among you.

²⁰ And those who remain shall hear and [reverently] fear, and shall henceforth commit no such evil among you.

²¹ Your eyes shall not pity: it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

20 When you go forth to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

² And when you come near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the men,

³ And shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies. Let not your [minds and] hearts faint; fear not, and do not tremble or be terrified [and in dread] because of them.

⁴ For the Lord your God is He Who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you.^(C)

⁵ And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.

⁶ And what man has planted a vineyard and has not used the fruit of it? Let him also return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man use the fruit of it.

⁷ And what man has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.

⁸ And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, What man is fearful and fainthearted? Let him return to his house, lest [because of him] his brethren’s [minds and] hearts faint as does his own.

⁹ And when the officers finish speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders at the head of the people.

¹⁰ When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.

¹¹ And if that city makes an answer of peace to you and opens to you, then all the people found in it shall be tributary to you and they shall serve you.

¹² But if it refuses to make peace with you and fights against you, then you shall besiege it.

¹³ And when the Lord your God has given it into your hands, you shall smite every male there with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴ But the women, the little ones, the beasts, and all that is in the city, all the spoil in it, you shall take for yourselves; and you shall use the spoil of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁵ So shall you treat all the cities that are very far off from you, that do not belong to the cities of these nations.

¹⁶ But in the cities of these people which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes.

¹⁷ But you shall utterly exterminate them, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded you,

¹⁸ So that they may not teach you all the abominable practices they have carried on for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by using an ax on them, for you can eat their fruit; you must not cut them down, for is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you?

²⁰ Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siege works against the city that makes war with you until it falls.