Deuteronomy 17 Background Information with Maps and Images (Picture Study Bible

Deuteronomy 17

1 - You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox, or a sheep, in which is a defect, or anything evil; for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.

2 - If there is found among you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, a man or woman who does that which is evil in the LORD your God's sight, in transgressing his covenant,

3 - and has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the stars of the sky, which I have not commanded;

4 - and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel,

5 - then you shall bring out that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even that same man or woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones.

then you shall bring out that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even that same man or woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones.

6 - At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

7 - The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

8 - If there arises 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 you shall arise, and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses.

9 - You shall come to the priests who are Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days. You shall inquire, and they shall give you the verdict.

10 - You shall do according to the decisions of the verdict which they shall give you from that place which the LORD chooses. You shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you:

11 - according to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left.

12 - The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. You shall put away the evil from Israel.

13 - All the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

14 - When you have come to the land which the LORD your God gives you, and possess it, and dwell in it, and say, "I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me";

15 - you shall surely set him king over yourselves, whom the LORD your God chooses. You shall set as king over you one from among your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

16 - Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because the LORD has said to you, "You shall not go back that way again."

17 - He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

18 - It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites.

19 - It shall be with him, and he shall read from it 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 not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn 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.

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Deuteronomy 17 Images and Notes

Brief Summary: The charge of this chapter is, I. Concerning the purity and perfection of all those animals that were offered in sacrifice (v. 1). II. Concerning the punishment of those that worshipped idols (v. 2-7). III. Concerning appeals from the inferior courts to the great Sanhedrin (v. 8-13). IV. Concerning the choice and duty of a king (v. 14, etc.).

Outline

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Deuteronomy 17:18-19 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: 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:

Religious Jew Reading the Scroll of the Torah, notice the prayer shawl over his head and the phylacteries on his forehead and arm to remind him that he must keep the law with his head and his heart. He is reading the scroll of the Torah which was written on parchment and fastened to rollers.

Painted sketch of ancient writing instruments

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