EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

Deuteronomy 17:1-20

Deuteronomy: God’s Law of Love

Love and Obey the *LORD your God

Deuteronomy

Philip Smith

Chapter 17

v1 ‘If any sheep or *cattle are not perfect, do not *sacrifice them to the *LORD your God. The *LORD your God hates such *sacrifices.

v2 Maybe you hear that a man or a woman has *sinned against the *LORD your God. This person lives in one of the towns that the *LORD your God is giving to you. He has not *kept the *covenant laws. v3 He has given honour to false gods or he has served them. Perhaps he has given honour to the sun or the moon or the stars. That is against God’s command. v4 If you hear such a report, then you must inquire into it carefully. It might be true that someone has done such an evil thing in *Israel. v5 If so, take the man or woman who has done this wicked act to your city gate. Then throw stones at that person until he dies. v6 You can do that only if two or three *witnesses speak against him. You cannot kill him if there was only one *witness. v7 The *witnesses must throw the first stones. Then the rest of the people must throw stones at that person. You must remove completely the wicked behaviour that is among you.’

Moses told the *Israelites again about *sacrifices. They must not give an animal as a *sacrifice if it was not perfect. (See Deuteronomy 15:21.) The *Israelites punished severely anyone who *worshipped false gods. The people would take the guilty person to the gate of the city. That was the place where judges had their court. Two or three *witnesses had to see that the person had given honour to false gods. The *witnesses would throw stones at the guilty person first. If the *witnesses had not told the truth, then other people would kill the *witnesses.

v8 ‘Sometimes the situation might be too difficult for a local judge to make a decision. It might involve a murder. Or it might be a situation when someone kills another person by accident. It might be an argument about the owner of property. It might be about injuries that somebody did on purpose. In those situations, go to the place that the *LORD your God will choose. v9 Go to the priests who are *Levites. Go to the person who is the judge at that time. Ask them. Let them decide. v10 They will give to you their decision at the place that the *LORD will choose. You must be careful to do whatever they tell you. v11 Obey the law that they teach to you. Follow the decisions that they give to you. Do everything that they tell you to do. v12 The judge or the priest on duty serves the *LORD your God there. So you must kill any proud person who refuses to obey them. In that way you will remove that evil thing from *Israel. v13 Everyone will hear and everyone will be afraid. They will not refuse to obey again.’

Some decisions were too difficult for local judges to make. There are three situations here. The first was about a person’s death. They had to decide whether it was by accident or by plan. The second was about which person had particular rights. The third was about a serious attack. The head of the court was probably the chief priest. The court made the final decision. The *Lord helped the judges to make the decision. Also, the judges had good experience. The people must act in agreement with the decisions of the judges. The people killed anyone who refused to obey the judge or the priest. That was because that person was acting against God.

v14 ‘You will enter the country that the *LORD your God is giving to you. You will live there and you will possess it. Then you will want to have a king as other nations have. v15 Be careful to appoint the king that the *LORD your God chooses. The king must be a man from your own nation. He must be an *Israelite. Do not make a foreigner your king. v16 The king must not own large numbers of horses. He must not send people to Egypt to buy horses. The *LORD has told you not to go back that way again. v17 The king must not have many wives, because that would make him not continue to follow the *LORD. He must not make himself rich with gold and silver.

v18 When he becomes king, he must write a copy of this law. He will copy it from the law that the priests have. The priests come from the family called Levi. v19 The king must keep this book near to him. He must read from it during all his life. Then he will learn how to respect the *LORD his God. And he will learn to *keep all the words of this law and these rules. v20 He will not think that he is better than the other *Israelites. Also, he will not refuse to obey the *commandments. As a result, he and his *descendants will rule over the *kingdom called *Israel for a long time.’

This section tells the *Israelites what to do if they wanted a king. God was their real king. Any human king must be a person whom God had chosen. He must not be a foreigner. Maybe that was because a foreigner might want to give honour to false gods. The king must not be like the kings of foreign countries. He must not have many horses. Therefore, he cannot have a large army. He must not have many wives. He must not become too rich. All those things would make him trust other things. Then he would not continue to trust the *Lord. Solomon started well, but then he did not obey all those rules. He obtained horses from Egypt. (See 1 Kings 10:28.) He had 700 main wives and 300 other wives as well. (See 1 Kings 11:3.) He had more riches than all the other kings of the earth. (See 1 Kings 10:23.) As a result, the *kingdom divided into two after his death. The king must have a copy of the law that he would study. If he obeyed this law, he and his family would rule over *Israel for a long time.

The command to read God’s law every day is good. Christians should read the Bible regularly. And then we will learn what God wants us to do. We will not think that we are better than other people. We will receive God’s *blessing. Joshua had to study and to obey the book of the law. God told him to do that. He said, ‘then you will do well and you will be successful.’ (See Joshua 1:8.)

Lord ~ a name for God. It translates the word ‘Adonai’ in the Hebrew language, which means ‘my ruler’. The word ‘lord’ (without a capital letter) means an ordinary ruler.

LORD ~ God gave this special name to himself. It translates the word ‘Yahweh’ in the Hebrew language. It is the Covenant name for God. It links to the words ‘I am’; it means that God has always been here.

covenant ~ the special promise that God made to his people. God’s covenant with the Israelites established a relationship between him and them. But they must obey him.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.