Detestable Sacrifices 1 AKJV You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any bad reputation: for that is an abomination to the LORD your God. BSB BSB: You 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.
Purge the Idolater 2 AKJV If there be found among you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, man or woman, that has worked wickedness in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant, BSB BSB: If 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 AKJV And has 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; BSB BSB: and 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 AKJV And it be told you, and you have heard of it, and inquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is worked in Israel: BSB BSB: and 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 AKJV Then shall you bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, to your gates, even that man or that woman, and shall stone them with stones, till they die. BSB BSB: you 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 AKJV At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. BSB BSB: On 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 AKJV The hands of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put the evil away from among you. BSB BSB: The 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.
Courts of Law 8 AKJV If there arise a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates: then shall you arise, and get you up into the place which the LORD your God shall choose; BSB BSB: If 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 AKJV And you shall come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall show you the sentence of judgment: BSB BSB: You 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 AKJV And you shall do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall show you; and you shall observe to do according to all that they inform you: BSB BSB: You must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you,
11 AKJV According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do: you shall not decline from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left. BSB BSB: according 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 AKJV And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not listen to the priest that stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die: and you shall put away the evil from Israel. BSB BSB: But 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 AKJV And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously. BSB BSB: Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will no longer behave arrogantly.
Guidelines for a King (1 Samuel 8:1–9)
14 AKJV When you are come to the land which the LORD your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; BSB BSB: When 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,”
16 AKJV But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: for as much as the LORD has said to you, You shall from now on return no more that way. BSB BSB: But 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 AKJV Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. BSB BSB: He 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 AKJV And it shall be, when he sits on 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: BSB BSB: When 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 AKJV And it shall be with him, and he shall read 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: BSB BSB: It 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 AKJV That his heart be not lifted up above his brothers, and that he turn 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 children, in the middle of Israel. BSB BSB: Then 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.