Deuteronomy 17

Do Not Bring God Any Lame Offerings

1 Do not be bringing any busted animal with defects or messed-up parts as a sacrifice to the Lord. That is disrespectful, God does not roll with sloppy worship.

Handling Real Evil, Like Worshiping Other Gods

2 If somebody in your hood, man or woman, is caught doing dirt in God’s eyes,

3 Like they bowing down to other gods, praying to the sun, moon, or stars, stuff God said not to mess with.

4 And you hear about it, you must check it out for real. Look into it, investigate. If it is true, and it really happened…

5 Take that dude or woman outta town and stone them till they are dead. You must purge that evil.

6 But hold up, do not do it off one person’s word. You need at least two or three witnesses to convict them.

7 The witnesses must throw the first stones. Then everybody else joins in. That way, you wipe that evil out your camp.

Handling Hard Cases in Court

8 If a case pops up that is too hard to judge, like somebody caught a body, or some other serious issue, and it is too deep for the local court,

9 Go to the Levite priests and the judge on duty at God’s chosen spot. Ask them what is up.

10 Whatever they tell you to do, you do it, no backtalk.

11 Follow the law and judgment they lay down. Do not be swerving left or right from what they say.

12 If someone acts slick and ignores the priest or judge, thinking they too good to follow the ruling, they must die. You cannot let rebellion spread.

13 Then everybody else will hear what happened and will not dare step outta line like that.

When You Ask for a King

14 When you all finally settle in the land God is giving you, and you say, “We want a king like other nations?”

15 Make sure it is the one God chooses. He must be one of your own people, not a foreigner.

16 He better not stack up horses for himself or send folks back to Egypt for more, God already told you all, “Do not go back there.”

17 He cannot be out here stacking up wives either, or he will lose focus. And no hoarding silver and gold like he is building his own empire.

18 When he takes the throne, he must write out a copy of this law by hand, from the scroll the priests keep.

19 He must read it every day, stay humble, and respect the Lord, follow all His commands.

20 That way he will not start thinking he better than his people or start doing his own thing. If he stays locked in like that, he and his kids will stay on that throne long term.