Your Throne, O God, Is Forever

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Maskil^[a] of ^(A)the Sons of Korah; a love song.

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.

Laws Concerning Israel's Kings

¹⁴ “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ^(H)‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵ you may indeed set a king over you ^(I)whom the Lord your God will choose. One ^(J)from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶ Only he must not acquire many ^(K)horses for himself or cause the people ^(L)to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ^(M)‘You shall never return that way again.’ ¹⁷ And he ^(N)shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, ^(O)nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

¹⁸ “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, ^(P)he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, ^(Q)approved by^[a] the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ And ^(R)it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, ^(S)that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, ²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he ^(T)may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, ^(U)so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

Provision for Priests and Levites

18 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, ^(A)shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They ^(B)shall eat the Lord's food offerings^[a] as their^[b] inheritance. ² They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. ³ And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: ^(C)they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. ^4 (D)The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. ⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes ^(E)to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.

⁶ “And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, ^(F)where he lives—and he may come when he desires^[c]—^(G)to the place that the Lord will choose, ⁷ and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, ^(H)like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, ⁸ then he may have equal ^(I)portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.^[d]

Abominable Practices

⁹ “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, ^(J)you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone ^(K)who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,^[e] anyone who ^(L)practices divination or ^(M)tells fortunes or interprets omens, or ^(N)a sorcerer ¹¹ or a charmer or ^(O)a medium or a necromancer or ^(P)one who inquires of the dead, ^12 (Q)for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And ^(R)because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. ¹³ You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, ¹⁴ for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

A New Prophet like Moses

^15 (S)“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶ just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb ^(T)on the day of the assembly, when you said, ^(U)‘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, ^(V)‘They are right in what they have spoken. ^18 (W)I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. ^(X)And I will put my words in his mouth, and ^(Y)he shall speak to them all that I command him. ^19 (Z)And whoever will ^(AA)not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. ^20 (AB)But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or^[f] who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ ²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— ^22 (AC)when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; ^(AD)the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

³⁶ While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become ^(A)sons of light.”

The Unbelief of the People

When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. ³⁷ Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, ^38 (B)so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

³⁹ Therefore they ^(D)could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

⁴¹ Isaiah said these things because ^(G)he saw his glory and ^(H)spoke of him. ⁴² Nevertheless, ^(I)many even of the authorities believed in him, but ^(J)for fear of the Pharisees they did not ^(K)confess it, so that they would not be ^(L)put out of the synagogue; ^43 (M)for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Jesus Came to Save the World

⁴⁴ And Jesus cried out and said, ^(N)“Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but ^(O)in him who sent me. ⁴⁵ And ^(P)whoever ^(Q)sees me sees him who sent me. ^46 (R)I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. ⁴⁷ If anyone ^(S)hears my words and does not keep them, ^(T)I do not judge him; for ^(U)I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. ^48 (V)The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; ^(W)the word that I have spoken will judge him ^(X)on the last day. ⁴⁹ For ^(Y)I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father ^(Z)who sent me has himself given me ^(AA)a commandment—what to say and what to speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”