Deuteronomy 17:10-20

10 You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do.
11 Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.
12 Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the LORD your God is to be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.
13 All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.

The King

14 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”
15 be sure to appoint over you a king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite.
16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”
17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests.
19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees
20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

Deuteronomy 17:10-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 17

This chapter begins with a caution not to sacrifice anything to the Lord that is blemished or ill favoured, De 17:1, an order is given to put to death men or women guilty of idolatry, where it is clearly proved upon them, De 17:2-7 and it is directed that when cases are too hard for inferior judges to determine, they should be brought to Jerusalem to the priests, Levites, and judges, which formed the great consistory there, whose sentence was to be adhered unto on pain of death, De 17:8-13, and rules are given about the choice of a king, and he is informed what he must not do, and what he should do, De 17:14-20.

Cross References 28

  • 1. S Leviticus 10:11; S Deuteronomy 5:32; Deuteronomy 25:1
  • 2. Numbers 15:30
  • 3. S Numbers 16:9
  • 4. ver 13; S Genesis 17:14; Deuteronomy 13:11; Deuteronomy 18:20; Deuteronomy 19:20; 1 Kings 18:40; Jeremiah 14:14; Hosea 4:4; Zechariah 13:3
  • 5. S Deuteronomy 13:5
  • 6. S ver 12; Deuteronomy 13:11; Deuteronomy 19:20
  • 7. S Numbers 33:53
  • 8. Joshua 21:43
  • 9. Deuteronomy 11:31; 1Sa 8:5,19-20; 1 Samuel 10:19
  • 10. 1 Samuel 16:3; 2 Samuel 5:3
  • 11. Jeremiah 30:21
  • 12. Isaiah 2:7; Isaiah 30:16
  • 13. 1 Samuel 8:11; 1 Kings 4:26; 1 Kings 9:19; 1 Kings 10:26; 2 Chronicles 1:14; Psalms 20:7
  • 14. 1 Kings 10:29; Isaiah 31:1; Jeremiah 42:14; Hosea 11:5
  • 15. 1 Kings 10:28; Isaiah 31:1; Ezekiel 17:15
  • 16. S Exodus 13:17
  • 17. S Exodus 34:16; 2 Samuel 5:13; 2 Samuel 12:11; 1 Kings 11:3; 2 Chronicles 11:21
  • 18. 1 Kings 11:2; Proverbs 31:3
  • 19. 1 Kings 10:27
  • 20. 2 Chronicles 1:11; Isaiah 2:7
  • 21. 1 Kings 1:46; 1 Chronicles 29:23
  • 22. Deuteronomy 31:22,24; Joshua 24:26; 1 Samuel 10:25
  • 23. 2 Chronicles 23:11
  • 24. Deuteronomy 4:9-10; Joshua 1:8
  • 25. Deuteronomy 11:13; 1 Kings 3:3; 1 Kings 11:38; 2 Kings 22:2
  • 26. Joshua 23:6; Job 23:12; Psalms 119:102; 1 Kings 15:5
  • 27. S Deuteronomy 5:32; S 1 Kings 9:4
  • 28. 1 Samuel 8:5; 1 Samuel 10:25; 1 Kings 2:3; 1 Chronicles 28:8
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