Deuteronomy 17:8-19:10

New King James Version

^8 (A)“If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the ^(B)place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ And ^(C)you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and ^(D)to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; ^(E)they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment. ¹⁰ You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the Lord chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you. ¹¹ According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you. ¹² Now ^(F)the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. ^13 (G)And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

Principles Governing Kings

¹⁴ “When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ^(H)‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall surely set a king over you ^(I)whom the Lord your God chooses; one ^(J)from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶ But he shall not multiply ^(K)horses for himself, nor cause the people ^(L)to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for ^(M)the Lord has said to you, ^(N)‘You shall not return that way again.’ ¹⁷ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and ^(O)gold for himself.

¹⁸ “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one ^(P)before the priests, the Levites. ¹⁹ And ^(Q)it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ that his heart may not ^[a]be lifted above his brethren, that he ^(R)may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may ^[b]prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

The Portion of the Priests and Levites

18 “The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have ^[c]no part nor ^(S)inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His portion. ² Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them.

³ “And this shall be the priest’s ^(T)due^[d] from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. ^4 (U)The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. ⁵ For ^(V)the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes ^(W)to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever.

⁶ “So if a Levite comes from any of your ^[e]gates, from where he ^(X)dwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire of his mind ^(Y)to the place which the Lord chooses, ⁷ then he may serve in the name of the Lord his God ^(Z)as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the Lord. ⁸ They shall have equal ^(AA)portions to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his inheritance.

Avoid Wicked Customs

⁹ “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(AB)you shall not learn to follow the ^[f]abominations of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter ^(AC)pass^[g] through the fire, ^(AD)or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ^11 (AE)or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or ^(AF)one who calls up the dead. ¹² For all who do these things are ^[h]an abomination to the Lord, and ^(AG)because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. ¹³ You shall be ^[i]blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not ^[j]appointed such for you.

A New Prophet Like Moses

^15 (AH)“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, ¹⁶ according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb ^(AI)in the day of the assembly, saying, ^(AJ)‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’

¹⁷ “And the Lord said to me: ^(AK)‘What they have spoken is good. ^18 (AL)I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and ^(AM)will put My words in His mouth, ^(AN)and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. ^19 (AO)And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. ²⁰ But ^(AP)the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^(AQ)who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ ²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— ^22 (AR)when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, ^(AS)if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it ^(AT)presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Three Cities of Refuge^(AU)

19 “When the Lord your God ^(AV)has cut off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, ^2 (AW)you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³ You shall prepare roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, that any manslayer may flee there.

⁴ “And ^(AX)this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor ^[k]unintentionally, not having hated him in time past— ⁵ as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live; ^6 (AY)lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past. ⁷ Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall separate three cities for yourself.’

⁸ “Now if the Lord your God ^(AZ)enlarges your territory, as He swore to ^(BA)your fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers, ⁹ and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and to walk always in His ways, ^(BB)then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three, ^10 (BC)lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you.