Law Courts

⁸ If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge^(A)—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults^(B)—take them to the place the Lord your God will choose.^{(C) 9} Go to the Levitical^(D) priests and to the judge^(E) who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.^{(F) 10} You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the Lord will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do. ¹¹ Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.^{(G) 12} Anyone who shows contempt^(H) for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering^(I) there to the Lord your God is to be put to death.^(J) You must purge the evil from Israel.^{(K) 13} All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.^(L)

The King

¹⁴ When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession^(M) of it and settled in it,^(N) and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”^{(O) 15} be sure to appoint^(P) over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites.^(Q) Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. ¹⁶ The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses^(R) for himself^(S) or make the people return to Egypt^(T) to get more of them,^(U) for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”^{(V) 17} He must not take many wives,^(W) or his heart will be led astray.^(X) He must not accumulate^(Y) large amounts of silver and gold.^(Z)

¹⁸ When he takes the throne^(AA) of his kingdom, he is to write^(AB) for himself on a scroll a copy^(AC) of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life^(AD) so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees^{(AE) 20} and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law^(AF) to the right or to the left.^(AG) Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.^(AH)

²⁸ “Do not blaspheme God^[a](A) or curse^(B) the ruler of your people.^(C)

Judges

¹⁸ Appoint judges^(A) and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly.^(B)

Laws of Justice and Mercy

23 “Do not spread false reports.^(A) Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.^(B)

² “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice^(C) by siding with the crowd,^(D)

⁷ Have nothing to do with a false charge^(A) and do not put an innocent^(B) or honest person to death,^(C) for I will not acquit the guilty.^(D)

⁸ “Do not accept a bribe,^(E) for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.

¹⁵ “‘Do not pervert justice;^(A) do not show partiality^(B) to the poor or favoritism to the great,^(C) but judge your neighbor fairly.^(D)

¹⁶ Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.^(A)

¹⁷ Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless^(B) of justice,^(C) or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. ¹⁸ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt^(D) and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

¹⁹ Do not pervert justice^(A) or show partiality.^(B) Do not accept a bribe,^(C) for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent. ²⁰ Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.