17
Warning against sacrificing defective animals
1 “Do not sacrifice to Yahweh our God any cattle or sheep or goats that have any defects, because Yahweh hates that kind of gift.”
Punishment for idolatry
2 “When you are living in any of the towns in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, suppose you hear that there is some man or woman who sins by disobeying the agreement that Yahweh has made with you.
3 Suppose someone tells you that that person has worshiped and served other gods, or the sun, or the moon, or the stars.
4 If you hear that some person has been doing that, you must investigate it thoroughly. If you find out that it is true that this detestable thing has happened in Israel,
5 you must take outside the town the man or woman who has done it. Then you must kill that person by throwing stones at him or her.
6 But you are allowed to execute such people only if at least two witnesses testify that they saw them doing that. They must not be executed if there is only one witness.
7 The ◄witnesses/ones who saw them doing it► must be the first ones to throw stones at them. Then the other people [MTY] should throw stones at them. By doing that, you will get rid of this evil practice among you.”
Judging difficult cases
8 “Sometimes it will be very difficult for a judge to decide what really happened. He might be trying to decide whether, when someone injured or killed another person, he did it accidentally or deliberately. Or he might be trying to decide if some person is suing another person unfairly. If in some town it is very difficult to know what really happened, with the result that the judge cannot decide it, you should go to the place that Yahweh our God has chosen for you to worship him.
9 There you should present the case to the descendants of Levi who are the priests, and to the judge who is serving at that time, and they should decide what should be done.
10 After they make their decision, you must do what they tell you to do.
11 Accept what they have decided, and do what they say that you should do. Do not try to change in any way what they have decided [IDM].
12 You must execute anyone who proudly/arrogantly disobeys the judge or the priest who stands there in the presence of Yahweh and decides what should be done. By doing that, you will get rid of evil practices among you.
13 Then after that person is executed, all the people will hear about it, and they will be afraid, and none of them will act that way any more.”
Proper behavior for a king
14 “I know that after you have occupied the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, and you are living there, you will say, ‘We should have a king to rule over us, like the kings that other nations around us have.’
15 Yahweh our God will permit you to have a king, but be sure that you appoint someone whom he has chosen. That man must be an Israeli; you must not appoint someone who is a foreigner to be your king.
16 After he becomes the king, he should not acquire a large number of horses for himself. He should not send people to Egypt to buy horses for him, because Yahweh said to you, ‘Never return to Egypt for anything’!
17 And he must not have a lot of wives, because if he did that, they would turn him [SYN] away from worshiping only Yahweh. And he must not acquire a lot of silver and gold.
18 “When he becomes your king, he must appoint someone to copy these laws. He must copy them from the scroll that is kept by the priests who are descended from Levi.
19 He must keep this new scroll near him and read from it every day of his life, in order that he may learn to revere Yahweh, and to faithfully obey [DOU] all the rules and regulations that are written in these laws.
20 If he does that, he [SYN] will not think that he is ◄better/more important► than [IDM] his fellow Israelis, and he will completely obey [LIT] Yahweh’s commands. As a result, he and his descendants will rule as kings in Israel for many years.”