Lexham English Bible

Deuteronomy 17:12-20 Lexham English Bible (LEB)

12. And the man who treats with contempt so as not to listen to the priest who is standing to minister on behalf of Yahweh your God or to the judge, that man shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.

13. And all the people will hear and will be afraid, and they will not behave presumptuously again.

14. “When you have come to that land that Yahweh your God is giving to you and you have taken possession of it and you have settled in it, and you say, ‘I will set over me a king like all the nations that are around me,’

15. indeed, you may set a king over you whom Yahweh your God will choose, from the midst of your countrymen you must set a king over you; you are not allowed to appoint over you a man, a foreigner, who is not your countryman.

16. Except, he may not make numerous for himself horses, and he may not allow the people to to go to Egypt in order to increase horses, for Yahweh has said to you that you may never return.

17. And he must not acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart would turn aside; and he must not accumulate silver and gold for himself excessively.

18. “And then when he is sitting on the throne of his kingdom, then he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll before the Levitical priests.

19. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to revere Yahweh your God by diligently observing all the word of this law and these rules,

20. so as not to exalt his heart above his countrymen and not to turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left, so that he may reign long over his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.”