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Deuteronomy 17

Deuteronomy book home•Chapter 17 of 34•20 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Deuteronomy 17 Overview

Deuteronomy 17 protects Israel’s worship and government. Defective sacrifices are rejected; proven idolatry receives judgment on the testimony of multiple witnesses; difficult legal cases are brought to the appointed priests and judge. The chapter then gives striking limits for a future king: he must not multiply horses, wives, or silver and gold, and he must personally read and obey a copy of the law.

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Before you read Deuteronomy 17

Coming from

Chapter 16 ended by commanding just judges and forbidding pagan cult objects beside the LORD’s altar.

In this chapter

Moses sets safeguards against corrupted worship, careless capital judgment, defiance of lawful decisions, and royal self-exaltation.

Leads into

Chapter 18 defines the support and duties of priests and Levites, forbids occult practices, and promises the coming Prophet like Moses.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Israel’s monarchy is anticipated before a king exists. The king is not above Torah; he is under it and must read it continually so his heart is not lifted above his brethren. Restrictions on horses, wives, and wealth target common royal temptations—military dependence, foreign entanglements, sensual compromise, and accumulation. The requirement for two or three witnesses protects against execution on a single accusation.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

No Israelite ruler is above God’s revealed law.

Truth 2

Serious judicial penalties require established testimony, not rumor or a lone accusation.

Truth 3

A king’s greatest safeguard is continual submission to God’s word, not unchecked power.

Truth 4

Leadership is corrupted when the heart is lifted up above one’s brethren.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

1 Kings 10–11 shows Solomon multiplying horses, wealth, and wives in ways that directly illuminate these warnings.

Connection 2

Matthew 18:16, 2 Corinthians 13:1, and 1 Timothy 5:19 reuse the two-or-three-witness principle in New Testament settings.

Connection 3

2 Kings 22–23 shows how rediscovery of the law can expose royal and national departure from God’s commands.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

The command to obey the appointed court belongs to Israel’s covenant judicial system; it is not a declaration that every later religious authority is infallible.

Keep this clear 2

The future king is permitted but tightly limited. Do not read the passage as endorsing absolute monarchy.

Keep this clear 3

Capital cases in ancient Israel should not be applied by the church, which has no civil execution authority.

Read Deuteronomy 17 watching for…

The witness requirement in idolatry cases.

Where hard cases are taken for judgment.

The limits placed on the future king.

The king’s required personal relationship to the written law.

The purpose given for the king’s continual reading.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-7Unacceptable sacrifice and idolatry are judged according to God’s law 8-13Hard cases are brought to the appointed judges and priests 14-20A future king must obey God’s law and not exalt himself

Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the LORD thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evilfavouredness: for that is an abomination unto the LORD thy God.

If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,

And hath 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;

And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:

Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.

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.

The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.

If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;

And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:

And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:

According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.

And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.

And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;

Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.

But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.

Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

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:

That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, 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 midst of Israel.

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Deuteronomy 17:2

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