Tanakh, Bible & Qu'ran: The Pillars of Three Faiths. Various Authors

thou arise, and get thee up unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. ⁹And thou shall come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days; and thou shalt inquire; and they shall declare unto thee the sentence of judgment. ¹⁰And thou shalt do according to the tenor of the sentence, which they shall declare unto thee from that place which the Lord shall choose; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they shall teach thee. ¹¹According to the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do; thou shalt not turn aside from the sentence which they shall declare unto thee, to the right hand, nor to the left. ¹²And the man that doeth presumptuously, in not hearkening unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die; and thou shalt exterminate the evil from Israel. ¹³And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

      ¹⁴When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein; and shalt say: 'I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are round about me'; ¹⁵thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose; one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee; thou mayest not put a foreigner over thee, who is not thy brother. ¹⁶Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses; forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you: 'Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.' ¹⁷Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. ¹⁸And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites. ¹⁹And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; ²⁰that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left; to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.

      18The priests the Levites, even all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His inheritance. ²And they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He hath spoken unto them.

      ³And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw. ⁴The first-fruits of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him. ⁵For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever.

      ⁶And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourneth, and come with all the desire of his soul unto the place which the Lord shall choose; ⁷then he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the Lord. ⁸They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which is his due according to the fathers' houses.

      ⁹When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. ¹⁰There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one that useth divination, a soothsayer, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, ¹¹or a charmer, or one that consulteth a ghost or a familiar spirit, or a necromancer. ¹²For whosoever doeth these things is an abomination unto the Lord; and because of these abominations the Lord thy God is driving them out from before thee. ¹³Thou shalt be whole-hearted with the Lord thy God. ¹⁴For these nations, that thou art to dispossess, hearken unto soothsayers, and unto diviners; but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do. ¹⁵A prophet will the Lord thy God raise up unto thee, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; ¹⁶according to all that thou didst desire of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying: 'Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.' ¹⁷And the Lord said unto me: 'They have well said that which they have spoken. ¹⁸I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. ¹⁹And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which he shall speak in My name, I will require it of him. ²⁰But the prophet, that shall speak a word presumptuously in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.' ²¹And if thou say in thy heart: 'How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?' ²²When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken; the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him.

      19When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations, whose land the Lord thy God giveth thee, and thou dost succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses; ²thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it. ³Thou shalt prepare thee the way, and divide the borders of thy land, which the Lord thy God causeth thee to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee thither. ⁴And this is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee thither and live: whoso killeth his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in time past; ⁵as when a man goeth into the forest with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of these cities and live; ⁶lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and smite him mortally; whereas he was not deserving of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past. ⁷Wherefore I command thee, saying: 'Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.' ⁸And if the Lord thy God enlarge thy border, as He hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which He promised to give unto thy fathers—⁹if thou shalt keep all this commandment to do it, which I command thee this day, to love the Lord thy God, and to walk ever in His ways—then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three; ¹⁰that innocent blood be not shed in the midst of thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.

      ¹¹But if any man hate his neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die; and he flee into one of these cities; ¹²then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. ¹³Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with thee.

      ¹⁴Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set, in thine inheritance which thou shalt inherit, in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it.

      ¹⁵One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth; at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be establishment¹⁶If an unrighteous witness rise up against any man to bear perverted witness against him; ¹⁷then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges that shall be in those days. ¹⁸And the judges shall inquire diligently; and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; ¹⁹then shall ye do unto him, as he had purposed to do unto his brother; so shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee. ²⁰And those that remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil in the midst of thee. ²¹And thine eye shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

       20When thou goest forth to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, thou