Deuteronomy 17:8-19

New American Standard Bible 1995

⁸ “^(A)If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between ^[a]one kind of homicide or another, between ^[b]one kind of lawsuit or another, and between ^[c]one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your ^[d]courts, then you shall arise and go up to ^(B)the place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ So you shall come to ^(C)the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case. ¹⁰ You shall do according to the ^[e]terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you. ^11 (D)According to the ^[f]terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left. ¹² The man who acts ^(E)presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. ¹³ Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act ^(F)presumptuously again.

¹⁴ “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you ^(G)possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘^(H)I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one ^(I)from among your ^[g]countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your ^[h]countryman. ^16 (J)Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he ^(K)cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since ^(L)the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ ^17 (M)He shall not multiply wives for himself, ^[i]or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll ^[j](N)in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ It shall be with him and he shall read it ^(O)all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, ^[k]by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes,