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,
1'I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,'
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you may indeed set a king over you
2whom the LORD your God will choose. One
3from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.
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Only he must not acquire many
4horses for himself or cause the people
5to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you,
6'You shall never return that way again.'
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And he
7shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away,
8nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.
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"And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom,
9he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law,
10approved by the Levitical priests.
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And
11it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life,
12that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them,
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that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he
13may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left,
14so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.