Deuteronomy 17:8-20

8“1If a case is too difficult for you to decide, between 2one kind of homicide or another, between 3one kind of lawsuit or another, and between 4one kind of assault or another, that are cases of dispute in your 5courts, then you shall arise and go up to 6the place which the Lord your God chooses. 9So you shall come to 7the Levitical priests or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the 8verdict. 10Then you shall act in accordance with the 9terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to act in accordance with everything that they instruct you to do. 1110In accordance with the 11terms of the law about which they instruct you, and in accordance with the verdict which they tell you, you shall act; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left. 12But the person who acts 12insolently by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that person shall die; so you shall eliminate the evil from Israel. 13Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act 13insolently again.

14“When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you 14take possession of it and live in it, and you say, ‘15I will appoint a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ 15you shall in fact appoint a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One 16from among your countrymen you shall appoint as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves, anyone who is not your countryman. 1617In any case, he is not to acquire many horses for himself, nor shall he 18make the people return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since 19the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ 17And 20he shall not acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

18“Now it shall come about, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Law on a scroll 2122in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19And it shall be with him, and he shall read it 23all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear the Lord his God, 24by carefully following all the words of this Law and these statutes, 20so that his heart will not be haughty toward his countrymen, 25and that he will not turn away from the commandment to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may 26live long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.