Deuteronomy 17:14–18:8

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, z‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you may indeed set a king over you awhom the Lord your God will choose. One bfrom 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 chorses for himself or cause the people dto return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, e‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he fshall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, gnor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

18 “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, hhe shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, iapproved by3 the Levitical priests. 19 And jit shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, kthat 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 lmay not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, mso that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

Provision for Priests and Levites

18 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, nshall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They oshall eat the Lord’s food offerings1 as their2 inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. 3 And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: pthey shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. 4 qThe firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5 For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes rto stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.

6 “And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, swhere he lives—and he may come when he desires3—tto the place that the Lord will choose, 7 and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, ulike all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, 8 then he may have equal vportions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.4