God Is King over All the Earth

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of ^wthe Sons of Korah.

1 ^j“You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.

2 ^k“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, ^lin transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or ^mthe sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, ⁿwhich I have forbidden, 4 and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire ^odiligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you ^pshall stone that man or woman to death with stones. 6 ^qOn the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. 7 ^rThe hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So ^syou shall purge¹ the evil² from your midst.

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

8 “If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to ^tthe place that the Lord your God will choose. 9 ^uAnd you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and ^vthey shall declare to you the decision. 10 Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. 11 According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. 12 The man who ^wacts presumptuously by not obeying the priest ^xwho stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So ^syou shall purge the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people ^yshall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.

Laws Concerning Israel’s Kings

14 “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ^z‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you may indeed set a king over you ^awhom the Lord your God will choose. One ^bfrom among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he must not acquire many ^chorses for himself or cause the people ^dto return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ^e‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he ^fshall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, ^gnor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

18 “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, ^hhe shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, ⁱapproved by³ the Levitical priests. 19 And ^jit shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, ^kthat he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he ^lmay not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, ^mso that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.