| NET Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1You must not sacrifice to him a bull or sheep that has a blemish or any other defect, because that is considered offensive to the LORD your God. | 1You are not to sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep that has a defect or any flaw in it, because that is detestable to the LORD your God." |
| 2Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you--in one of your villages that the LORD your God is giving you--who sins before the Lord your God and breaks his covenant | 2"You may discover that a man or woman living in one of your cities that the LORD your God is about to give you has done evil in the eyes of the LORD your God by transgressing his covenant. |
| 3by serving other gods and worshiping them--the sun, moon, or any other heavenly bodies which I have not permitted you to worship. | 3He may be following and serving other gods by bowing down to them—that is, to the sun, the moon, or to any of the heavenly host (something I did not command). |
| 4When it is reported to you and you hear about it, you must investigate carefully. If it is indeed true that such a disgraceful thing is being done in Israel, | 4When it is reported to you or you hear of it, then investigate it thoroughly. When the truth has been established that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, |
| 5you must bring to your city gates that man or woman who has done this wicked thing--that very man or woman--and you must stone that person to death. | 5summon the man or the woman who did this evil thing to your city gates. Then stone the man or the woman to death. |
| 6At the testimony of two or three witnesses they must be executed. They cannot be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. | 6Based on the testimony of two or three witnesses, they must surely die. But they are not to die based on the testimony of one person. |
| 7The witnesses must be first to begin the execution, and then all the people are to join in afterward. In this way you will purge evil from among you. | 7Let the witnesses be the first to begin executing them, then the rest of the people shall follow. By doing this you will purge evil from among you." |
| 8If a matter is too difficult for you to judge--bloodshed, legal claim, or assault--matters of controversy in your villages--you must leave there and go up to the place the LORD your God chooses. | 8"If a case is too difficult for you to decide with respect to bloodshed, civil claims, assault and battery, or other matters of dispute within your courts, bring it to the place that the LORD your God will choose. |
| 9You will go to the Levitical priests and the judge in office in those days and seek a solution; they will render a verdict. | 9Present the case to the Levitical priest or the judge at that time. When you have inquired and they have announced the verdict, |
| 10You must then do as they have determined at that place the LORD chooses. Be careful to do just as you are taught. | 10carry out the verdict that was declared to you at the place that the LORD will choose. Carefully observe all of their instructions to you |
| 11You must do what you are instructed, and the verdict they pronounce to you, without fail. Do not deviate right or left from what they tell you. | 11in accordance with what the Law says, and in accordance with the verdict that will be handed to you. You must not deviate from the verdict that they declare to you either to the right or to the left. |
| 12The person who pays no attention to the priest currently serving the LORD your God there, or to the verdict--that person must die, so that you may purge evil from Israel. | 12If a man presumptuously disregards the priest who is serving the LORD your God there or the judge, that person must die so you will purge evil from Israel. |
| 13Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and not be so presumptuous again. | 13Then all the people who hear will be afraid and will not act presumptuously again." |
| 14When you come to the land the LORD your God is giving you and take it over and live in it and then say, "I will select a king like all the nations surrounding me," | 14"When you have come to the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, and you have taken possession of it, and have settled in it, then you will say, 'I will appoint a king over me like all the nations around me.' |
| 15you must select without fail a king whom the LORD your God chooses. From among your fellow citizens you must appoint a king--you may not designate a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites. | 15You will certainly set a king over you, whom the LORD your God will choose from among your relatives, but you must not place a foreign king over you who is not from your relatives. |
| 16Moreover, he must not accumulate horses for himself or allow the people to return to Egypt to do so, for the LORD has said you must never again return that way. | 16Only he must not amass horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt to obtain more horses. For the LORD said you must never return that way again. |
| 17Furthermore, he must not marry many wives lest his affections turn aside, and he must not accumulate much silver and gold. | 17Also, he must not accumulate wives for himself (otherwise, his affection will become diverted), nor accumulate for himself excessive quantities of silver and gold. |
| 18When he sits on his royal throne he must make a copy of this law on a scroll given to him by the Levitical priests. | 18When he occupies his royal throne, he must make a copy of this Law for himself from a scroll used by the Levitical priests. |
| 19It must be with him constantly and he must read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and observe all the words of this law and these statutes and carry them out. | 19It is to remain with him the rest of his life so he may learn to fear the LORD his God and observe all the words of this Law and these statutes, in order to fulfill them. |
| 20Then he will not exalt himself above his fellow citizens or turn from the commandments to the right or left, and he and his descendants will enjoy many years ruling over his kingdom in Israel. | 20He is not to exalt himself over his relatives, nor turn aside from the commandment—neither to the right nor to the left—so that he and his sons may reign long in Israel." |
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