14 When you enter the land that your god Yahweh is about to give you, then occupy and live in it, and you say that you need a king over you like all the surrounding countries have,[ref] 15 you can appoint the king over you that Yahweh chooses. Your king must be an Israeli—never allow a foreigner to become your king. 16 However, he mustn’t acquire a large number of horses for himself, and he should never send people to Egypt to buy horses, because Yahweh has told you all to never go back that way again.[ref] 17 He mustn’t take a lot of wives for himself or else he might stop worshipping Yahweh. Nor should he accumulate too much gold and silver.[ref]

18 Once he’s sitting on his royal throne, he must copy for himself the instructions on the scroll that’s in the custody of the Levitical priests, 19 then he must keep it with him and read some of it every day so that he learns to honour his god Yahweh—being careful to follow all the instructions and regulations written in it 20 so that he won’t think he’s more valued than his fellow citizens, and so that he doesn’t ignore those instructions even slightly. As a result, him and his descendants will rule as kings in Yisrael for many years.