17:8 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.
25:1 If controversy arises between people, 7 they should go to court for judgment. When the judges 8 hear the case, they shall exonerate 9 the innocent but condemn 10 the guilty. 25:2 Then, 11 if the guilty person is sentenced to a beating, 12 the judge shall force him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of blows his wicked behavior deserves. 13 25:3 The judge 14 may sentence him to forty blows, 15 but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite 16 with contempt.