Old Testament Commentary - Deuteronomy 17

by Don R. Hender

Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
             CHAPTER 17            

Those who worship false gods shall be put to death—Priests and judges shall determine the hard cases—Kings shall not multiply horses or wives of gold—The king must study the laws of God daily.

  1 THOU shalt not sacrifice unto the LORD thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is ablemish, or any bevilfavouredness: for that is an abomination unto the LORD thy God.
  2 ¶ If there be found among you, within any of thy agates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in btransgressing his covenant,
  3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
  4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
  5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt astone them with stones, till they bdie.
  6 aAt the mouth of btwo witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to cdeath; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
  7 The hands of the witnesses shall be afirst upon him to put him to deatha, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.
  8 ¶ If there arise a matter too hard for thee in ajudgment, bbetween blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of ccontroversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the dplace which the LORD thy God shall choose;
  9 And thou shalt come unto the apriests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall bshew thee the sentence of judgment:
  10 And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee;
  11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.
  12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.
  13 And all the people shall hear, and afear, and do no more presumptuously.
  14 ¶ When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over mea, like as all the nations that are about me;
  15 aThou shalt in any wise set him bking over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a cstranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
 14a I will set a king over me God, speaking by Moses, knew that Israel one day would desire a king like unto the other nations round about. Thus, by way of Moses, the Lord did set out some stepulations upon such, that there would be no argument as to who and the manner and order of things in Israel under a king.
  16 But he shall not multiply ahorses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth breturn no more that way.
  17 Neither shall he multiply awives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly bmultiply to himself silver and gold.
  18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
  19 And it shall be with him, and he shall aread therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
  20 That his heart be not lifted up above his abrethren, and that he bturn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his cchildren, in the midst of Israel.