Principles Governing Kings

¹⁴ “When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ^(A)‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall surely set a king over you ^(B)whom the Lord your God chooses; one ^(C)from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶ But he shall not multiply ^(D)horses for himself, nor cause the people ^(E)to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for ^(F)the Lord has said to you, ^(G)‘You shall not return that way again.’ ¹⁷ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and ^(H)gold for himself.

¹⁸ “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one ^(I)before the priests, the Levites. ¹⁹ And ^(J)it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ that his heart may not ^[a]be lifted above his brethren, that he ^(K)may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may ^[b]prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

^28 (A)“You shall not revile God, nor curse a ^(B)ruler of your people.

Justice Must Be Administered

¹⁸ “You shall appoint ^(A)judges and officers in all your ^[a]gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment.

^8 (A)“If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the ^(B)place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ And ^(C)you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and ^(D)to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; ^(E)they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment. ¹⁰ You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the Lord chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you. ¹¹ According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you. ¹² Now ^(F)the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. ^13 (G)And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

⁸ And ^(A)you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.

¹⁵ ‘You shall do no injustice in ^(A)judgment. You shall not ^(B)be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.

^17 (A)“You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, ^(B)nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge. ¹⁸ But ^(C)you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this thing.

^19 (A)You shall not pervert justice; ^(B)you shall not ^[a]show partiality, ^(C)nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and ^[b]twists the words of the righteous. ²⁰ You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may ^(D)live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving you.