The Court at the Chosen Place
1 You shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or a sheep in which is a defect or anything evil; for that is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 2 If there is found among you, within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, a man or woman who does that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight in transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the stars of the sky, which I have not commanded, 4 and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to your gates, even that same man or woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones. 6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. 7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from among you. 8 If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise, and go up to the place which Yahweh your God chooses. 9 You shall come to the priests who are Levites and to the judge who shall be in those days. You shall inquire, and they shall give you the verdict. 10 You shall do according to the decisions of the verdict which they shall give you from that place which Yahweh chooses. You shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you. 11 According to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn away from the sentence which they announce to you, to the right hand, nor to the left. 12 The man who does presumptuously in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. You shall put away the evil from Israel. 13 All the people shall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously.
A capital charge requires diligent inquiry and two witnesses, and the witnesses must throw the first stones.
The procedure set out here is the closest thing in the law to a criminal code, and every clause of it slows the process down.
A report arrives. The response is not action but investigation: you shall inquire diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain Deuteronomy 17:4. The same three-verb requirement was placed on the case of a whole town Deuteronomy 13:14. Hearsay does not start a trial.
Then the evidentiary rule, and it is the foundation of the law's whole approach to testimony. At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death Deuteronomy 17:6.
One witness is never enough, whatever his standing and however certain he is. The rule is repeated later for all serious charges Deuteronomy 19:15, and the New Testament carries it into the church's own discipline Matthew 18:16 and applies it to accusations against elders 1 Timothy 5:19.
What follows is the provision that makes the rest real. The hands of the witnesses shall be first on him Deuteronomy 17:7.
The men whose testimony convicted must begin the execution. No official carries it out for them, and no crowd absorbs the responsibility. A man contemplating a false accusation has to picture himself throwing the first stone, and the law puts that picture in front of him before he opens his mouth.
The second half establishes an appeal. Cases too hard for you in judgment go up from the local court to the chosen place, to the priests and the judge in office Deuteronomy 17:8–9. The categories are listed — bloodshed, civil pleas, assault — and the referral is for difficulty rather than for importance.
The verdict from that court is binding: you shall not turn away from the sentence which they announce to you, to the right hand, nor to the left Deuteronomy 17:11. And refusal to accept it is treated with the gravity of rebellion Deuteronomy 17:12.
That is a strong grant of authority, and its limit is set two verses earlier by what the court is doing. It gives the decisions of the law which they shall teach you Deuteronomy 17:11. The judges are not making the law; they are applying a text that stands over them, and the same book has just forbidden anyone to add to it or take from it Deuteronomy 12:32.
settled What this mark means