1 »Never offer a bull or a sheep that has a defect or anything seriously wrong with it as a sacrifice to Jehovah your God. That is an abomination to him.

2 »In one of the cities Jehovah your God is giving you, there may be a man or woman among you who is doing what Jehovah considers evil. This person may be disregarding the conditions of Jehovah’s covenant.

3 »Some worship and bow down to other gods, the sun, the moon, or the whole army of heaven. I have forbidden this.

4 »If it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. If it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,

5 »Bring that man or woman who has done this evil deed out to your gates. Stone the man or the woman to death.

6 »On the evidence and testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. He shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

7 »The witnesses must throw the first stone to put him to death, and afterward all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

8 »If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you should go to the place Jehovah your God chooses.

9 »Approach the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days. Inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case.

10 »Act according to the terms of the verdict they declare to you from that place Jehovah chooses. Be careful to abide by all that they teach you.

11 »Act according to the verdict and the terms they tell you. Do not turn away from the word they declare to you.

12 »The man who acts presumptuously and does not listen to the priest or the judge will die. This way you will purge the evil from Israel. The priests and judges are there to serve Jehovah your God.

13 »Then all the people will hear and be afraid. They will not act presumptuously again.

14 »Enter the land Jehovah your God gives you. Possess it and live in it. You will say: I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,

15 you shall surely set a king over you whom Jehovah your God chooses. It will be one from among your countrymen. You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.

16 »He must not increase his herd of horses. He must not send the people to return to Egypt to get more horses. For Jehovah said to you: You should never again return that way.

17 »He must not take many wives or his heart will turn astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

18 »When he first sits on the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll taken in the presence of the Levitical priests.

19 »He should keep it with him. He should read from it all the days of his life. In this way he will learn to respect Jehovah his God by carefully observing all the words of this Law and these statutes.

20 »He must not think he is better than the rest of his people. He will not disobey these commandments in any way. So he and his sons will rule for a long time in Israel.