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    Deuteronomy · 20 verses

    Deuteronomy 17

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    A king is forbidden to send people back to Egypt for horses, then told to sit down before the priests and copy the instruction onto a scroll by hand—a royal education with a remarkably firm policy on horse procurement.

    A witness is not enoughvv. 1–7

    An offering must have no defect, and worship of other gods is treated with equally severe precision. A report must be investigated thoroughly; two or three witnesses are required, and the witnesses themselves begin the stoning before all the people join in. It is a grim little arrangement, but at least the lone witness is not allowed to carry the whole matter.

    The difficult case goes uphillvv. 8–13

    When bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults become too difficult to judge at the local gates, the matter goes up to the place the LORD will choose. There, the Levitical priests and the judge give a verdict, and it is to be followed without veering right or left. Refusal to listen is itself made a capital offence, so the machinery of judgment is given a very sharp edge indeed.

    The king and his scrollvv. 14–20

    Once Israel has settled in the land, a king may be appointed—but only one chosen from among the brothers, not a foreigner. His appetites are carefully fenced in: not many horses, not a return to Egypt, not many wives, and not heaps of silver and gold. Then comes the splendidly ordinary royal duty: seated on the throne, he must write out a copy of the instruction in the presence of the Levitical priests and read it all his life, so that his heart does not rise above his countrymen.

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Deut 17:1You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep with any defect or serious flaw, for that is detestable to the LORD your God.

    2. Deut 17:2If a man or woman among you in one of the towns that the LORD your God gives you is found doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God by transgressing His covenant

    3. Deut 17:3and going to worship other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven—which I have forbidden—

    4. Deut 17:4and if it is reported and you hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly. If the report is true and such an abomination has happened in Israel,

    5. Deut 17:5you must bring out to your gates the man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you must stone that person to death.

    6. Deut 17:6On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but he shall not be executed on the testimony of a lone witness.

    7. Deut 17:7The hands of the witnesses shall be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people. So you must purge the evil from among you.

    8. Deut 17:8If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the LORD your God will choose.

    9. Deut 17:9You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Inquire of them, and they will give you a verdict in the case.

    10. Deut 17:10You must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you,

    11. Deut 17:11according to the terms of law they give and the verdict they proclaim. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from the decision they declare to you.

    12. Deut 17:12But the man who acts presumptuously, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, or to the judge, must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

    13. Deut 17:13Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will no longer behave arrogantly.

    14. Deut 17:14When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”

    15. Deut 17:15you are to appoint over yourselves the king whom the LORD your God shall choose. Appoint a king from among your brothers; you are not to set over yourselves a foreigner who is not one of your brothers.

    16. Deut 17:16But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’

    17. Deut 17:17He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.

    18. Deut 17:18When he is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

    19. Deut 17:19It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes.

    20. Deut 17:20Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 234 passages were voted onto 20 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 19Joshua 1:8This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.
    • 19Psalms 119:97–100Oh, how I love Your law! All day long it is my meditation.
    • 16Isaiah 31:1–3Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the LORD.
    • 19Psalms 1:2But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.
    • 15Jeremiah 30:21Their leader will be one of their own, and their ruler will arise from their midst. And I will bring him near, and he will approach Me, for who would dare on his own to approach Me?” declares the LORD.
    • 192 Timothy 3:15–17From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
    • 16Deuteronomy 28:68The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
    • 16Ezekiel 17:15But this king rebelled against Babylon by sending his envoys to Egypt to ask for horses and a large army. Will he flourish? Will the one who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and yet escape?’
    • 17Nehemiah 13:26Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel—yet foreign women drew him into sin.
    • 19John 5:39You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me,
    • 141 Samuel 8:19–20Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We must have a king over us.
    • 16Hosea 11:5Will they not return to the land of Egypt and be ruled by Assyria because they refused to repent?
    • 16Psalms 20:7Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
    • 17Matthew 19:5and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
    • 17Proverbs 30:8–9Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion.
    • 1Deuteronomy 15:21But if an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

    Onward

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