1   You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep that has any defect or serious blemish, for that would be abominable to the Lord your God.

2   If so be that, in any one of the settlements which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman is found among you who does what is wrong in the eyes of the Lord your God, 3   by breaking his covenant and going to worship other gods and prostrating himself before them or before the sun and moon and all the host of heaven—a thing that I have forbidden—then, 4   if it is reported to you or you hear of it, make thorough inquiry. If the report proves to be true, and it is shown that this abominable thing has been done in Israel, 5   then bring the man or woman who has done this wicked deed to the city gate ^note and stone him to death. 6   Sentence of death shall be carried out on the testimony of two or of three witnesses: no one shall be put to death on the testimony of a single witness. 7   The first stones shall be thrown by the witnesses and then all the people shall follow; thus you shall rid yourselves of this wickedness.

8   When the issue in any lawsuit is beyond your competence, whether it be a case of blood against blood, plea against plea, or blow against blow, that is disputed in your courts, ^note then go up without delay to the place which the Lord your God will choose. 9   There you must go to the levitical priests or to the judge then in office; seek their guidance, and they will pronounce the sentence. 10   You shall act on the pronouncement which they make from the place which the Lord will choose. See that you carry out all their instructions. 11   Act on the instruction which they give you, or on the precedent that they cite; do not swerve from what they tell you, either to right or to left. 12   Anyone who presumes to reject the decision either of the priest who ministers there to the Lord your God, or of the judge, shall die; thus you will rid Israel of wickedness.

God's laws delivered by Moses 13   Then all the people will hear of it and be afraid, and will never again show such presumption.

14   When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and occupy it and settle in it, and you then say, ‘Let us appoint over us a king, 15   as all the surrounding nations do’, you shall appoint as king the man whom the Lord your God will choose. You shall appoint over you a man of your own race; you must not appoint a foreigner, one who is not of your own race. 16   He shall not acquire many horses, nor, to add to his horses, shall he cause the people to go back to Egypt, for this is what the Lord said to you, ‘You shall never go back that way.’ 17   He shall not acquire many wives and so be led astray; nor shall he acquire great quantities of silver and gold for himself. 18   When he has ascended the throne of the kingdom, he shall make a copy of this law in a book at the dictation of the levitical priests. 19   He shall keep it by him and read from it all his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and keep all the words of this law and observe these statutes. 20   In this way he shall not become prouder than his fellow-countrymen, nor shall he turn from these commandments to right or to left; then he and his sons will reign long over his kingdom in Israel.

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