Deuteronomy 17-18New King James Version (NKJV)
17 “You shall not sacrifice to
the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect,
for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.
2 “If there is found among you,
within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you, a man or
a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the Lord your God, in
transgressing His covenant, 3 who has gone and
served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host
of heaven, which I have not commanded, 4 and it is
told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire
diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain
that such an abomination has been committed in Israel, 5 then
you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that
wicked thing, and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones. 6 Whoever
is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three
witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony 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 put away the evil from
among you.
8 “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 place
which the Lord your God chooses. 9 And
you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in
those days, and inquire of them; 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 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 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, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around
me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom
the Lord your God chooses; one 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 horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt
to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘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 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 before the priests, the Levites. 19 And
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 be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the
commandment to the right hand or to the left,
and that he may 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 no part nor 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 due
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 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 the Lord your God has
chosen him out of all your tribes 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 gates, from where he dwells among all Israel, and comes with all the
desire of his mind to the place which the Lord chooses, 7 then
he may serve in the name of the Lord his God as all his brethren the
Levites do, who stand there before the Lord. 8 They
shall have equal 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, you shall not learn to follow the
abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not
be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter
pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a
soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or
one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the
dead. 12 For all who do these things are an
abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations
the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13 You
shall be 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 appointed such for you.
A New Prophet Like Moses
15 “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 in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘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: ‘What they have spoken is good. 18 I will raise
up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words
in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 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
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 prophet shall
die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall
we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when
a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, 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 presumptuously; you shall not be afraid
of him.
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