Глава 17

Repetition of laws. On the quality of sacrificial animals. - About the punishment of idolaters. Structure of the court. Election and qualities of the future king of the Jews. Deut.17:1. You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep on which there is blemish or anything evil, for this is an abomination to the Lord your God. Deut.17:2. If there be found among you in any of your dwellings which the Lord your God is giving you, man or woman, who does evil in the sight of the Lord your God by transgressing His covenant, Deut.17:3. and he will go and serve other gods and worship them, or the sun, or the moon, or all the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, Deut.17:4. and it will be announced to you, and you will hear, then you will seek well; and if this is the exact truth, if this abomination has been done in Israel, Deut.17:5. then bring out the man or woman who did this evil to your gates and stone them to death. Deut.17:6. According to two witnesses, or three witnesses, a person condemned to death must die: he should not be put to death according to one witness; Deut.17:7. the hand of witnesses must be on him first to kill him, then the hand of all the people; and so destroy evil from among you. Wed. Ref. 20.1–6, Lev.20.1–6; Deuteronomy 13.1. Deut.17:8. If in any matter it becomes difficult for you to decide between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, between beatings and beatings, and there are dissenting opinions within your gates, then arise and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, [so that His name may be called upon there,] Deut.17:9. and go to the priests of the Levites and to the judge who will be in those days, and ask them, and they will tell you how to judge; Deut.17:10. and do according to the word that they speak to you in the place that the Lord [your God] will choose, that His name may be called there, and try to do everything that they teach you; Deut.17:11. act according to the law that they will teach you, and according to the decree that they will tell you, and do not deviate either to the right or to the left from what they tell you. Deut.17:12. And whoever acts so boldly that he does not listen to the priest who stands there ministering before the Lord your God, or the judge [who will be in those days], he must die, and so destroy evil from Israel; Deut.17:13. and all the people will hear and fear, and will no longer act insolently. During the wanderings in the desert, the highest court of justice among the Jewish people was Moses (Ex. 18.19, 20, 23). After the death of the great leader, such an authority should become the council of priests and judges at the tabernacle of meeting, chaired by the high priest, who has the opportunity to inquire of God through the Urim and Thummim (Num. 27.2). The rabbis claim that the Small Sanhedrin received its establishment on the basis of the book. Deuteronomy 16.18, and the great Sanhedrin - based on Deuteronomy 17.8–13. Deut.17:14. When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and take possession of it, and settle in it, and say, “I will set a king over me, like the rest of the nations that are around me,” Deut.17:15. then set over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose; Set a king over you from among your brothers; You cannot place a foreigner over you [king] who is not your brother. Deut.17:16. Just so that he does not multiply horses for himself and does not return the people to Egypt to multiply horses for himself, for the Lord said to you: “Do not return any more by this way”; Deut.17:17. and lest he should multiply wives for himself, lest his heart should be corrupted, and lest he should multiply for himself silver and gold excessively. Deut.17:18. But when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he must copy for himself a copy of this law from the book that is kept by the Levitical priests, Deut.17:19. and let him have it, and let him read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and strive to fulfill all the words of this law and these statutes; Deut.17:20. so that his heart would not be puffed up before his brothers, and so that he would not turn aside from the law, either to the right or to the left, so that he and his sons might remain in his kingdom for many days in the midst of Israel. The Lord himself repeatedly promised the patriarchs that kings would descend from them (Gen. 17.6; Gen. 35.11). Patriarch Jacob, in his prophetic blessing to Judah, speaks of kings who will come from the tribe of Judah until the coming of the Reconciler (Gen. 49.10). Moses foresees the coming of royal rule in Israel and therefore gives guidance to the people regarding the election of a king, and to the future king regarding his life and behavior. According to the instructions of Moses, the Jewish king should be a man chosen by God himself from among Israel. The Jewish king should not think about returning to Egypt, which the rebellious people repeatedly recalled during their wanderings in the desert (Ex. 14:11–12, 16:3, 17:3; Num. 11:5, 21:5) and where he once thought to return (Num. 14.3–4); should not furnish his court with attributes of pagan luxury, harmful to himself and burdensome to the economy of the people. You might be interested in: