Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 17:8-15 
Context17:8 If a matter is too difficult for you to judge – bloodshed, 1 legal claim, 2 or assault 3 – matters of controversy in your villages 4 – you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. 5 17:9 You will go to the Levitical priests and the judge in office in those days and seek a solution; they will render a verdict. 17:10 You must then do as they have determined at that place the Lord chooses. Be careful to do just as you are taught. 17:11 You must do what you are instructed, and the verdict they pronounce to you, without fail. Do not deviate right or left from what they tell you. 17:12 The person who pays no attention 6 to the priest currently serving the Lord your God there, or to the verdict – that person must die, so that you may purge evil from Israel. 17:13 Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and not be so presumptuous again.
17:14 When you come to the land the Lord your God is giving you and take it over and live in it and then say, “I will select a king like all the nations surrounding me,” 17:15 you must select without fail 7 a king whom the Lord your God chooses. From among your fellow citizens 8 you must appoint a king – you may not designate a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites. 9
1 tn Heb “between blood and blood.”
2 tn Heb “between claim and claim.”
3 tn Heb “between blow and blow.”
4 tn Heb “gates.”
5 tc Several Greek recensions add “to place his name there,” thus completing the usual formula to describe the central sanctuary (cf. Deut 12:5, 11, 14, 18; 16:6). However, the context suggests that the local Levitical towns, and not the central sanctuary, are in mind.
6 tn Heb “who acts presumptuously not to listen” (cf. NASB).
7 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, indicated in the translation by the words “without fail.”
8 tn Heb “your brothers,” but not referring to siblings (cf. NIV “your brother Israelites”; NLT “a fellow Israelite”). The same phrase also occurs in v. 20.
9 tn Heb “your brothers.” See the preceding note on “fellow citizens.”
