Guidelines for a King

(1 Samuel 8:1–9)

When you enter the land that 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 you are to appoint over yourselves the king whom the LORD your God shall choose. Appoint a king from among your brothers; you are not to set over yourselves a foreigner who is not one of your brothers.

16 

But [the king] must not acquire many horses for himself [or] send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said‘You are never to go back that way again.’ 17 He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.

18 

When he is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes 20 Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel. 18