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Deuteronomy 17

1“You must not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or an animal from the flock that has a defect, any serious fault, because that is an abomination to Yahweh your God.

2“If there is found among you, within one of your towns Yahweh your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, transgressing his covenant, 3going to serve other gods and bowing down to them—to the sun, the moon, or any of the army of the heavens, which I have not commanded— 4and it is reported to you and you hear of it, inquire carefully. If it is true and the matter is established that this abomination has been done in Israel, 5bring the man or woman who has done this evil thing out to your gates—the man or the woman—and stone them with stones so that they die. 6On the testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses the person condemned to death is to be put to death. No one may be put to death on the testimony of one witness. 7The hand of the witnesses must be first against that person to put them to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.

8“If a case is too difficult for you to judge—between one bloodshed case and another, one legal claim and another, or one injury and another, matters of dispute within your towns—get up and go to the place Yahweh your God chooses. 9Come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who serves in those days, and inquire. They will declare the judicial decision to you. 10Carry out the decision they declare to you from that place Yahweh chooses. Take care to do everything they instruct you. 11Carry out the instruction they teach you and the judgment they tell you. You must not turn aside to the right or left from the decision they declare to you. 12The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to minister to Yahweh your God, or to the judge—that man must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. 13All the people will hear and fear, and will not act presumptuously again.

14“When you enter the land Yahweh your God is giving you, possess it, and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,’ 15you must set over you a king whom Yahweh your God chooses. Set a king over you from among your brothers. You may not put a foreign man over you, one who is not your brother. 16But he must not multiply horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to multiply horses, since Yahweh has said to you, ‘You must never return that way again.’ 17He must not multiply wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn aside, nor may he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. 18When he sits on his royal throne, he must write for himself on a scroll a copy of this instruction, from the one before the Levitical priests. 19It must remain with him, and he must read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God by keeping all the words of this instruction and these statutes, carrying them out, 20so that his heart may not be exalted above his brothers and he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or left, and so that he and his sons may prolong their days over his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

Translation notes 4

17:2–7 — Women, men, and witnesses. The law expressly includes both a man and a woman. The repeated identification of both in verse 5 is retained. The gate is the public legal setting, distinguished from “towns” for the broader jurisdiction. Execution requires two or three witnesses, whose hands must initiate the killing; the penalty is not reduced to exclusion from the community.

17:8–13 — Difficult cases and authority. The Hebrew repeats “between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, between injury and injury.” The English supplies “case/claim” to show disputed legal distinctions; the last category can also include an affliction rather than only a wound. The singular judge is not silently identified with a particular later institution. The death penalty for presumptuous refusal remains explicit.

17:14–17 — Kingship under limits. “Brother” makes the king a fellow member of Israel. Limits on horses, wives, silver, and gold are all retained. The king may not raise his heart above those called his brothers. The English does not turn the passage into an unqualified endorsement or rejection of monarchy.

17:18–20 — A copy of the instruction. “Copy” renders mishneh here; it does not mean that the king writes a second, different law. “From the one before the Levitical priests” makes the implied authoritative exemplar explicit. “Scroll” renders the writing medium without implying a modern bound book. The king is personally subject to the instruction he reads.