Deuteronomy 17:8-13
New English Translation
Appeal to a Higher Court
8 If a matter is too difficult for you to judge—bloodshed,[a] legal claim,[b] or assault[c]—matters of controversy in your villages[d]—you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses.[e] 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[f] 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.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 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 17:8-13
English Standard Version
Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges
8 “If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to (A)the place that the Lord your God will choose. 9 (B)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 (C)they shall declare to you the decision. 10 Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. 11 According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. 12 The man who (D)acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest (E)who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So (F)you shall purge the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people (G)shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.
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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
