Deuteronomy 16:16   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed:

Deuteronomy 16:18   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly.

Deuteronomy 16:19   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent.

Deuteronomy 16:20   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Deuteronomy 16:21   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the Lord your God,

Deuteronomy 16:22   (Read all of Deuteronomy 16)

and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the Lord your God hates.

Deuteronomy 17:1   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect or flaw in it, for that would be detestable to him.

Deuteronomy 17:3   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars in the sky,

Deuteronomy 17:5   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.

Deuteronomy 17:12   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the Lord your God is to be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

Deuteronomy 17:14   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

When you enter the land 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,"

Deuteronomy 17:15   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite.

Deuteronomy 17:17   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

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

Deuteronomy 17:18   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests.

Deuteronomy 17:19   (Read all of Deuteronomy 17)

It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees

Deuteronomy 18:1   (Read all of Deuteronomy 18)

The Levitical priests-indeed, the whole tribe of Levi-are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance.

Deuteronomy 18:2   (Read all of Deuteronomy 18)

They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.

Deuteronomy 18:3   (Read all of Deuteronomy 18)

This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head.

Deuteronomy 18:4   (Read all of Deuteronomy 18)

You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,

Deuteronomy 18:5   (Read all of Deuteronomy 18)

for the Lord your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the Lord's name always.

Deuteronomy 18:7   (Read all of Deuteronomy 18)

he may minister in the name of the Lord his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 18:8   (Read all of Deuteronomy 18)

He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.

Deuteronomy 18:10   (Read all of Deuteronomy 18)

Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,

Deuteronomy 18:11   (Read all of Deuteronomy 18)

or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.