Deuteronomy 17:14-20

Evangelical Heritage Version

The King

¹⁴ When you have entered the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “I am determined to set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,” ¹⁵ you may set a king over yourself, one whom the Lord your God will choose. You may set over yourself a king who is from among your brother Israelites. You must not set a foreigner over you, one who is not your brother.

¹⁶ But the king must not accumulate more and more horses for himself, and he must not send people back to Egypt in order to accumulate more horses, because the Lord has said to you, “You must not go back that way again.” ¹⁷ He must not accumulate more and more wives for himself, or his heart may go astray. He must not accumulate excessive silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ When he sits on his royal throne, he is to have a copy of this law written for him on a scroll in the presence of the priests, who are from the tribe of Levi. ¹⁹ It is to remain with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he learns to fear the Lord his God by being careful to carry out all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ so that his heart does not grow haughty toward his brothers and turn away from this set of commands, either to the right or the left, so that the days of his royal reign in Israel, as well as that of his sons, may be many.