THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
17:2. When there shall be found among you within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, man or woman that do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, and transgress his covenant,
17:3. So as to go and serve strange gods, and adore them, the sun and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which I have not commanded:
The host of heaven... That is, the stars.
17:4. And this is told thee, and hearing it thou hast inquired diligently, and found it to be true, and that the abomination is committed in Israel:
17:5. Thou shalt bring forth the man or the woman, who have committed that most wicked thing, to the gates of thy city, and they shall be stoned.
17:6. By the mouth of two or three witnesses shall he die that is to be slain. Let no man be put to death, when only one beareth witness against him.
17:7. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to kill him, and afterwards the hands of the rest of the people: that thou mayst take away the evil out of the midst of thee.
17:8. If thou perceive that there be among you a hard and doubtful matter in judgment between blood and blood, cause and cause, leprosy and leprosy: and thou see that the words of the judges within thy gates do vary: arise, and go up to the place, which the Lord thy God shall choose.
If thou perceive, etc... Here we see what authority God was pleased to give to the church guides of the Old Testament, in deciding, without appeal, all controversies relating to the law; promising that they should not err therein; and surely he has not done less for the church guides of the New Testament.
17:9. And thou shalt come to the priests of the Levitical race, and to the judge, that shall be at that time: and thou shalt ask of them, and they shall shew thee the truth of the judgment.
17:10. And thou shalt do whatsoever they shall say, that preside in the place, which the Lord shall choose, and what they shall teach thee,
17:11. According to his law; and thou shalt follow their sentence: neither shalt thou decline to the right hand nor to the left hand.
17:12. But he that will be proud, and refuse to obey the commandment of the priest, who ministereth at that time to the Lord thy God, and the decree of the judge, that man shall die, and thou shalt take away the evil from Israel:
17:13. And all the people hearing it shall fear, that no one afterwards swell with pride.
17:14. When thou art come into the land, which the Lord thy God will give thee, and possessest it, and shalt say: I will set a king over me, as all nations have that are round about:
17:15. Thou shalt set him whom the Lord thy God shall choose out of the number of thy brethren. Thou mayst not make a man of another nation king, that is not thy brother.
17:16. And when he is made king, he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor lead back the people into Egypt, being lifted up with the number of his horsemen, especially since the Lord hath commanded you to return no more the same way.
17:17. He shall not have many wives, that may allure his mind, nor immense sums of silver and gold.
17:18. But after he is raised to the throne of his kingdom, he shall copy out to himself the Deuteronomy of this law in a volume, taking the copy of the priests of the Levitical tribe,
17:19. And he shall have it with him, and shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and keep his words and ceremonies, that are commanded in the law;
17:20. And that his heart be not lifted up with pride over his brethren, nor decline to the right or to the left, that he and his sons may reign a long time over Israel.
Deuteronomy Chapter 18
The Lord is the inheritance of the priests and Levites. Heathenish abominations are to be avoided. The great PROPHET CHRIST is promised. False prophets must be slain.
18:1. The priests and Levites, and all that are of the same tribe, shall have no part nor inheritance with the rest of Israel, because they shall eat the sacrifices of the Lord, and his oblations,
18:2. And they shall receive nothing else of the possession of their brethren: for the Lord himself is their inheritance, as he hath said to them.
18:3. This shall be the priest's due from the people, and from them that offer victims: whether they sacrifice an ox, or a sheep, they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the breast:
18:4. The firstfruits also of corn, of wine, and of oil, and a part of the wool from the shearing of their sheep.
18:5. For the Lord thy God hath chosen him of all thy tribes, to stand and to minister to the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever.
18:6. If a Levite go out of any one of the cities throughout all Israel, in which he dwelleth, and have a longing mind to come to the place which the Lord shall choose,
18:7. He shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, that shall stand at that time before the Lord.
18:8. He shall receive the same portion of food that the rest do: besides that which is due to him in his own city, by succession from his fathers.
18:9. When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee, beware lest thou have a mind to imitate the abominations of those nations.
18:10. Neither let there be found among you any one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making them to pass through the fire: or that consulteth soothsayers, or observeth dreams and omens, neither let there be any wizard,
18:11. Nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the dead.
18:12. For the Lord abhorreth all these things, and for these abominations he will destroy them at thy coming.
18:13. Thou shalt be perfect, and without spot before the Lord thy God.
18:14. These nations, whose land thou shalt possess, hearken to soothsayers and diviners: but thou art otherwise instructed by the Lord thy God.
18:15. The Lord thy God will raise up to thee a PROPHET of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto me: him thou shalt hear:
18:16. As thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the assembly was gathered together, and saidst: Let me not hear any more the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see any more this exceeding great fire, lest I die.
18:17. And the Lord said to me: They have spoken all things well.