Study Desk

If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge-whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults-take them to the place the LORD your God will choose.

Go to the priests, who are Levites, and to the judge who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.

You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they direct you to do.

Act according to the law they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.

The man who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the LORD your God must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.