Deuteronomy (The Speeches of Moses) - Ferrar Fenton Bible Translation page 190

Recorders for yourselves in every village which your Evmz-L1v1NG Gon gives to you, to control you, and to govern the People with honest government. You shell not distort justice. You shall not regard sta- tions. You shall _not take bribes; for bribes blind the eyes of the intelligent, and pervert the decrees of justice. You shell follow perfect justice, so that you may live and possess the countrythat your EVER- 1.1vm<; Gon has given to you. You shell not plant shrines, or any

trees, at the side of the altar you make to your EvER—L1v1NG GOD; nor shall you erect for yourselves columns, as standards, to your EVER- uvmo Gon. 17 You shall not sacrifice to your EVER-LIVING GOD an om; or _a sheep in which there is any defect,—any thing bad,———for that would be an insult to your EVER-Livmo Gon. lf there should come out from any

of yorr villages which your Even- L1v1NGlGOD gives you, a man or a woman who does wrong in the sight ofthe Even-L1v11~1<; by slighting His Covenant, and going and serving other gods, and worshipping them, or the `sun, or the moon, or any of the hosts of the skies contrary to my command,—·and it is reported to you; when you hear it, then you should enquire carefully, and if the truth of the thing is confirmed, that such an outrage has been done in Israel, you shall bring out that man or that woman, who have done that wicked thing, in the village of the man or woman, and stone them to death with stones. They shall be put to death on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Upon the evi- dence of one witness, they shall not be put to death. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon them, to kill them ;-—then the hands of all the People afterwards. You shall thus bum that wickedness from among you. lf a case should occur among you

diflicult to decide between blood and blood, between right and right, and between stroke and stroke;-—an affair of a contention in your gates,-·-you shall remove it, and take it up to the place which your EVER-L1v1NG GOD _has chosen for Himself, and go to the 9 priests, to the Levites, and to the judge who may be in your times, and appeal and report the matter to the Chief judge, and act upon the decision which he pronounces. You shallnot turn from the order that he communicates to you, to the right or to the left. And the person who acts insolently against the decree of the priest appointed to serve your EvER· Livmo Gon there, and the Chief judge,-——that man shall die! Thus you shall burn that evil out of Israel, and all the People will hear, and fear, and no longer be contumacious. When you arrive. in the country

which your EvER—L1v1NG GOD has given to you, andpossess it and reside in it, and say to yourselves; ‘ Let us place a king over us, like all you shall_ only place over you the king whom your EVER-L1v1NG GOD may choose for Himself. You shall place a king over you from your brothers; you are not permitted. to appoint a foreigner over yourselves, a man who is- not your brother. Further he shall not- collect horses

to himself, and he shall not take the People back to the Mitzeraim,. be» cause of its abundance of horses, for the EvER—L1v1NG has commanded you not to contemplate to return by that way for ever. He shall not collect wivesabout

himself, nor turn his heart to silver and gold, to accumulate them ex- cessively. When he is set upon the throne for

his kingship, there shall be written out for him a Duplicate of the Law, from the book in the custody ofthe Levitical priests, and he shall keep it with him, and read in it every day of his life, so that he ’may learn to fear the Ev1·:u—L1v1Nc his Gon,-—·-to guard the whole of the command— ments of the LAW, and to administer these Institutions; so that hisheart may not rise above his brothers, and IQ0 10 II I2 16 18 I4) 20