¹¹ He said, ^(A)“These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: ^(B)he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. ¹² And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some ^(C)to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. ¹³ He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. ^14 (D)He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. ¹⁵ He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. ¹⁶ He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men^[a] and your donkeys, and put them to his work. ¹⁷ He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. ¹⁸ And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, ^(E)but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

Laws Concerning Israel's Kings

¹⁴ “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ^(A)‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵ you may indeed set a king over you ^(B)whom the Lord your God will choose. One ^(C)from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶ Only he must not acquire many ^(D)horses for himself or cause the people ^(E)to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ^(F)‘You shall never return that way again.’ ¹⁷ And he ^(G)shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, ^(H)nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

¹⁸ “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, ^(I)he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, ^(J)approved by^[a] the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ And ^(K)it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, ^(L)that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, ²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he ^(M)may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, ^(N)so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.