Deuteronomy 17:14-20

English Standard Version

Laws Concerning Israel's Kings

¹⁴ “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ^(A)‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵ you may indeed set a king over you ^(B)whom the Lord your God will choose. One ^(C)from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶ Only he must not acquire many ^(D)horses for himself or cause the people ^(E)to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ^(F)‘You shall never return that way again.’ ¹⁷ And he ^(G)shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, ^(H)nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

¹⁸ “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, ^(I)he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, ^(J)approved by^[a] the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ And ^(K)it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, ^(L)that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, ²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he ^(M)may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, ^(N)so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.