1 ¶ You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God a bull, or a sheep, that has a blemish, or any defect: for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.

2 If there is found among you, within any of the towns which the LORD your God gives you, a man or woman, who has done what is wicked in the sight of the LORD your God, by transgressing his covenant,

3 And has gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;

4 And you are told of it, or have heard of it, and inquired diligently, and, found it to be true, and it is certain, that such abomination has been done in Israel:

5 Then you shall bring the man or woman, who has committed that wicked thing, out to your gates, and shall stone that man or that woman with stones, until they die.

6 He who is worthy of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two, or three witnesses; but he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness.

7 The hands of the witnesses shall be the first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from among you.

8 ¶ If a case arises that is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of bloodshed and another, between one plea for right and another, or between one kind of assault and another, which are matters of controversy within your towns: then you shall arise, and go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose;

9 And you shall come to the Levitical priests, and to the one who is judge at that time, and inquire; and they will give you a just verdict:

10 And you must act according to the verdict, given to you by those at the place which the LORD chooses; and you must be careful to do all that they tell you:

11 You must do everything according to the legal decision that they teach you, and according to the judgment which they give you: you shall not depart from the sentence which they give you, to the right hand, or to the left.

12 And the man who will act presumptuously, and will not listen to the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or to the judge, that man shall die: so you shall purge the evil from Israel.

13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and not act presumptuously again.

14 ¶ When you come to the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it, and live in it, and then say, I will set a ruler over me, like all the nations that are around me;

15 You shall surely set as ruler over you, him whom the LORD your God shall choose: you shall set one from among your brethren as ruler over you: you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not one of your brethren.

16 However he must not acquire many horses for himself, or cause the people to return to Egypt, in order to multiply horses: since the LORD has said to you, You shall never return there again.

17 Nor shall he acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away: nor shall he acquire great amounts of silver and gold for himself.

18 And when he sits on the throne of his government, he shall write down for himself in a book a copy of this law out of what is before the Levitical priests:

19 And he shall keep it with him, and read from it all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by keeping all the words of this law and following these statutes:

20 So that his heart is not lifted up above his brethren, and he does not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he and his sons may continue ruling many years, in the midst of Israel.