Daily Text and Bible Reading: Saturday, March 1 [Press play below]

17.1 “You must not sacrifice to Jehovah your God a bull or a sheep that has a defect or anything wrong with it, for it would be detestable to Jehovah your God.
17.2 “Suppose a man or a woman is found among you, in any of your cities that Jehovah your God is giving you, who is practicing what is bad in the eyes of Jehovah your God and violating his covenant,
17.3 and he goes astray and worships other gods and he bows down to them or to the sun or the moon or all the army of the heavens, a thing that I have not commanded.
17.4 When it is reported to you or you hear about it, then you should investigate the matter thoroughly. If it is confirmed to be true that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,
17.5 you must bring the man or the woman who has done this evil thing out to the city gates, and the man or the woman must be stoned to death.
17.6 On the testimony of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die should be put to death. He must not be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
17.7 The hand of the witnesses should be the first to come against him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward. You must remove what is bad from your midst.
17.8 “If a case arises in one of your cities that is too difficult for you to judge, whether it is a case involving bloodshed or a legal claim that has been raised or a violent deed that has been committed or other matters of dispute, you should rise up and go to the place that Jehovah your God chooses.
17.9 Go to the Levitical priests and to the judge serving in those days, and make your inquiry, and they will hand down the decision to you.
17.10 Then you must act according to the decision that they hand down to you from the place that Jehovah chooses. Be careful to do according to all that they instruct you.
17.11 You must act according to the law that they show you and according to the decision that they declare to you. Do not deviate from the decision that they will hand down to you, either to the right or to the left.
17.12 The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who is ministering to Jehovah your God or to the judge must die. You must remove what is bad from Israel.
17.13 All the people will then hear and become afraid, and they will not act presumptuously anymore.
17.14 “When you enter the land that Jehovah your God is giving you and you have taken possession of it and are living in it, and you say, ‘Let me appoint a king over myself like all the nations around me,’
17.15 in that case, you should without fail appoint a king whom Jehovah your God chooses. You should appoint a king from among your brothers. You are forbidden to appoint over yourself a foreigner who is not your brother.
17.16 However, he should not acquire many horses for himself or make the people go back to Egypt in order to obtain more horses, since Jehovah told you, ‘You must never go back again by this way.’
17.17 Neither should he take many wives for himself, so that his heart may not go astray; nor should he acquire vast amounts of silver and gold for himself.
17.18 When he takes his seat on the throne of his kingdom, he must write for himself in a book a copy of this Law, taken from the one kept by the Levitical priests.
17.19 “It is to remain with him, and he must read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God and observe all the words of this Law and these regulations by carrying them out.
17.20 Thus his heart will not exalt itself above his brothers, and he will not deviate from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, so that he may remain a long time over his kingdom, he and his sons in the midst of Israel.
18.1 “The Levitical priests, and indeed the entire tribe of Levi, will not be given a share or an inheritance with Israel. They will eat of the offerings made by fire to Jehovah, which are his inheritance.
18.2 So they should have no inheritance in the midst of their brothers. Jehovah is their inheritance, just as he has spoken to them.
18.3 “Now this will be the due right of the priests from the people: Whoever makes a sacrifice, whether a bull or a sheep, is to give the shoulder, the jaws, and the stomach to the priest.
18.4 The firstfruits of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the first wool that is shorn from your flock you should give him.
18.5 Jehovah your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to minister in the name of Jehovah always.
18.6 “But if a Levite leaves one of your cities in Israel where he was living and he desires to go to the place that Jehovah chooses,
18.7 he may minister there in the name of Jehovah his God the same as all his brothers, the Levites, who are stationed there before Jehovah.
18.8 He will receive an equal share of food with them, in addition to what he receives from selling his ancestral possessions.
18.9 “When you have entered into the land that Jehovah your God is giving you, you must not learn to imitate the detestable practices of those nations.
18.10 There should not be found in you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, anyone who employs divination, anyone practicing magic, anyone who looks for omens, a sorcerer,
18.11 anyone binding others with a spell, anyone who consults a spirit medium or a fortune-teller, or anyone who inquires of the dead.
18.12 For whoever does these things is detestable to Jehovah, and on account of these detestable practices Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you.
18.13 You should prove yourself blameless before Jehovah your God.
18.14 “For these nations that you are dispossessing used to listen to those practicing magic and divination, but Jehovah your God has not allowed you to do anything like this.
18.15 Jehovah your God will raise up for you from among your brothers a prophet like me. You must listen to him.
18.16 This is in response to what you asked of Jehovah your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Do not let me hear the voice of Jehovah my God or see this great fire anymore, so that I do not die.’
18.17 Then Jehovah said to me, ‘What they have said is good.
18.18 I will raise up for them from the midst of their brothers a prophet like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him.
18.19 Indeed, I will require an account from the man who will not listen to my words that he will speak in my name.
18.20 “‘If any prophet presumptuously speaks a word in my name that I did not command him to speak or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.
18.21 However, you may say in your heart: “How will we know that Jehovah has not spoken the word?”
18.22 When the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word is not fulfilled or does not come true, then Jehovah did not speak that word. The prophet spoke it presumptuously. You should not fear him.’
19.1 “When Jehovah your God destroys the nations whose land Jehovah your God is giving you and you have dispossessed them and have settled in their cities and their houses,
19.2 you should set apart three cities in the midst of your land that Jehovah your God is giving you to possess.
19.3 You should divide the territory of the land that Jehovah your God has given you to possess into three parts, and prepare the roads so that any manslayer can flee to one of those cities.
19.4 “Now this is what should take place regarding the manslayer who may flee there in order to live: When he strikes his fellow man unintentionally and he did not previously hate him;
19.5 as when he goes with his fellow man into the forest to gather wood and he raises his hand to cut the tree with the ax, but the axhead flies off the handle and hits his fellow man and he dies, the manslayer should flee to one of these cities to live.
19.6 Otherwise, in the heat of anger, the avenger of blood may chase after the manslayer, overtake him, and kill him, because the distance to the city was too far. However, he did not deserve to die, since he did not previously hate his fellow man.
19.7 That is why I am commanding you: ‘Set three cities apart.’
19.8 “If Jehovah your God enlarges your territory as he swore to your forefathers and he has given you all the land that he promised to give to your forefathers
19.9 —provided you faithfully observe all this commandment that I am giving you today, to love Jehovah your God and always to walk in his ways—then you are to add three other cities to these three.
19.10 In this way no innocent blood will be spilled in your land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, and no bloodguilt will come upon you.
19.11 “But if a man hated his fellow man and he was waiting to attack him and he fatally wounded him and he died, and the man has fled to one of these cities,
19.12 the elders of his city should then summon him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, and he must die.
19.13 You should not feel sorry for him, and you must remove the guilt of innocent blood out of Israel, so that it may go well for you.
19.14 “When you receive your inheritance in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you to possess, you must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker from the place where the ancestors set the boundaries.
19.15 “No single witness may convict another for any error or any sin that he may commit. On the testimony of two witnesses or on the testimony of three witnesses the matter should be established.
19.16 If a malicious witness testifies against a man and charges him with some transgression,
19.17 the two men who have the dispute will stand before Jehovah, before the priests and the judges who will be serving in those days.
19.18 The judges will thoroughly investigate, and if the man who testified is a false witness and has brought a false charge against his brother,
19.19 you should do to him just as he had schemed to do to his brother, and you must remove what is bad from your midst.
19.20 Those who remain will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything bad like this among you.
19.21 You should not feel sorry: Life will be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.