Deuteronomy 17 · Parashat Shoftim

Thou shalt not sacrifice to the Lord thy God any bullock, or sheep, in which is a blemish, or anything evil: for that is an abomination to the Lord thy God.

If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God gives thee, a man or woman, who has perpetrated wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant,

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;

and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination has been perpetrated in Yisra᾽el:

then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, who has committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, and shalt stone that man or that woman with stones till they die.

At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.

If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between plague and plague, matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and go up to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose;

and thou shalt come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall tell thee the sentence of judgment:

and thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall tell thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:

according to the sentence of the Tora which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not deviate from the sentence which they shall tell thee, to the right hand, or to the left.

And the man that will act presumptuously, and will not hearken to the priest that stands to minister there before the Lord thy God, or to the judge, that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Yisra᾽el.

And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

When thou art come to the land which the Lord thy God gives thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell in it, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are about me;

then thou mayst appoint a king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set as king over thee: thou mayst not set a stranger over thee, who is not thy brother.

But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Miżrayim, to the end that he should multiply horses: since the Lord has said to you, You shall henceforth return no more that way.

Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

And it shall be, when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Tora in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:

and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this Tora and these statutes, to do them:

that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Yisra᾽el.