Deuteronomy 17 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Don’t sacrifice to Yahweh your God any ox or sheep that has a defect or anything wrong with it — that’s offensive to Yahweh your God.

If someone among you — in any of the towns Yahweh your God is giving you — is found doing what Yahweh considers wrong by breaking his agreement,

and goes off to serve other gods and bow down to them — whether it’s the sun, the moon, or anything else in the sky — which I never authorized,

and you’re told about it or hear of it, then investigate it thoroughly. If the report checks out and this offensive thing really did happen in Israel,

bring the man or woman who did this terrible thing out to your city gates and stone that person to death.

The person facing death must be convicted on the testimony of two or three witnesses. No one can be put to death on the word of just one witness.

The witnesses must be the first to carry out the execution, and then all the people join in. You must purge this wrong from among you.

If a case comes before you in your local courts that’s too difficult to decide—whether it involves bloodshed, a legal dispute, or an assault—any controversy within your towns—take it up to the place Yahweh your God will choose.

Go to the Levitical priests and to the judge serving at that time. Consult them, and they’ll give you the ruling.

You must follow the decision they hand down from that place Yahweh chooses. Be careful to do everything they instruct you.

Act according to the instruction they give you and the ruling they announce. Don’t deviate from what they tell you, either to the right or to the left.

Anyone who acts arrogantly by refusing to listen to the priest who stands serving Yahweh your God there, or to the judge—that person must die. You must purge this wrong from Israel.

All the people will hear about it and be afraid, and they won’t act arrogantly again.

When you’ve entered the land Yahweh your God is giving you, and you’ve taken possession of it and settled down in it, and you say, “Let’s set up a king over us, like all the nations around us”—

you must appoint the king Yahweh your God chooses. Appoint someone from among your own people. You may not put a foreigner over you—someone who isn’t one of your own.

But the king must not acquire large numbers of horses for himself, and he must not send the people back to Egypt to get more horses, because Yahweh told you, “You are never to go back that way again.”

He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. And he must not accumulate excessive amounts of silver and gold.

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he must write out a copy of this instruction on a scroll, taken from the one the Levitical priests keep.

It must stay with him, and he must read it every day of his life, so that he learns to respect Yahweh his God by carefully following every word of this instruction and these guidelines —

so that he doesn’t start thinking he’s better than his fellow Israelites, and so he doesn’t drift from what’s been commanded, either to the right or to the left. That way he and his descendants will reign for a long time over Israel.