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Deuteronomy 16:18-17:13 — Judges and Courts

Deut.16.18-17.13

¹⁸You shall appoint judges and officials for yourself in all your towns that Yahweh your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ¹⁹You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. ²⁰Justice, justice you shall pursue, so that you may live and possess the land that Yahweh your God is giving you. ²¹You shall not plant for yourself an Asherah pole of any kind of wood beside the altar of Yahweh your God that you will make for yourself. ²²And you shall not set up for yourself a sacred pillar, which Yahweh your God hates.

Chapter 17

¹You shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or a sheep that has a defect or any serious flaw, for that is an abomination to Yahweh your God. ²If there is found among you, in one of your towns that Yahweh your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, by transgressing his covenant, ³and has gone and served other gods and bowed down to them, or to the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; ⁴and it is told to you and you hear of it, then you shall investigate thoroughly. And behold, if it is true and the matter is certain that this abomination has been done in Israel, ⁵then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to your gates—that man or that woman—and you shall stone them to death with stones. ⁶On the testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. ⁷The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. ⁸If a matter is too difficult for you to judge—between one kind of bloodshed and another, between one kind of lawsuit and another, and between one kind of assault and another, being matters of dispute in your towns—then you shall arise and go up to the place that Yahweh your God will choose. ⁹And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire, and they will declare to you the verdict. ¹⁰You shall do according to the terms of the verdict that they declare to you from that place which Yahweh will choose, and you shall be careful to do according to all that they instruct you. ¹¹According to the terms of the law that they instruct you, and according to the judgment that they tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside to the right or to the left from the decision that they declare to you. ¹²The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands to minister there to Yahweh your God, or to the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. ¹³And all the people will hear and fear , and will not act presumptuously again.

Translation Notes

4/11/2026

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