Deuteronomy 17:8-18

8 "{If a matter is too difficult for you}, [for example disputes] between blood and blood, between legal claim and legal claim and between assault and assault [and between] matters of discernment in your {towns}, then you shall get up and you shall go to the place that Yahweh your God will choose;

9 then you shall go to the priests and the Levites and to the judge who will be [in office] in those days, and you shall enquire, and they shall announce to you {the verdict}.

10 "And {you shall carry out exactly the decision} that they announced to you from that place that Yahweh will choose, and {you shall diligently observe} according to all that they instruct you.

11 [And so] according to {the instruction of the law} that they teach you and according to the decisions that they say to you, you shall do; you shall not turn from the word that they tell you to the right or [to the] left.

12 And the man who treats with contempt [so as] not to listen to the priest [who] [is] standing to minister on behalf of Yahweh your God or to the judge, that man shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.

13 And all the people will hear and will be afraid, and they will not behave presumptuously again.

14 "When you have come to that land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you and you have taken possession of it and you have settled in it, and you say, 'I will set over me a king like all the nations that [are] around me,'

15 indeed, you may set a king over you whom Yahweh your God will choose, from the midst of your countrymen you must set a king over you; you are not allowed to appoint over you a man, a foreigner, who [is] not your countryman.

16 Except, he may {not make numerous} for himself horses, and he may not allow the people to [to go] to Egypt {in order to increase horses}, for Yahweh has said to you that {you may never return}.

17 And he must not {acquire many} wives for himself, so that his heart [would] turn aside; and {he must not accumulate silver and gold for himself excessively}.

18 "{And then} {when he is sitting} on the throne of his kingdom, then he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll {before} the Levitical priests.

Deuteronomy 17:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 17

This chapter begins with a caution not to sacrifice anything to the Lord that is blemished or ill favoured, De 17:1, an order is given to put to death men or women guilty of idolatry, where it is clearly proved upon them, De 17:2-7 and it is directed that when cases are too hard for inferior judges to determine, they should be brought to Jerusalem to the priests, Levites, and judges, which formed the great consistory there, whose sentence was to be adhered unto on pain of death, De 17:8-13, and rules are given about the choice of a king, and he is informed what he must not do, and what he should do, De 17:14-20.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "If is difficult/wonderful from you a thing for judgment"
• [b]. Or "between one homicide and another"
• [c]. Or "one kind of lawsuit and another"
• [d]. Or "one kind of abuse and another"
• [e]. Literally "gates"
• [f]. Literally "the word of the decision"
• [g]. Literally "and you shall do according to the mouth of the word"
• [h]. Literally "and you shall observe and do"
• [i]. Literally "mouth of the law"
• [j]. Or "acts presumptuously"
• [k]. Or "brothers"
• [l]. Or "brother"
• [m]. Literally "not multiply"
• [n]. Literally "in order to make numerous horse"
• [o]. Literally "not you may do again to return"
• [p]. Or "make numerous"
• [q]. Literally "gold and silver not he must make numerous for him very"
• [r]. Literally "And it shall happen"
• [s]. Literally "as/when his sitting"
• [t]. Literally "to the face of"