set of institutions, a re-examination of Israelite kingship is a necessary part of this study. The seemingly extraneous, lengthy expositions on human kingship, the vehicle of the metaphor, are however an essential prerequisite for understanding the image of God as king. Two central problems immediately emerge in studying ‘God is king’ as a metaphor, where God’s kingship in Israel is patterned after human kingship. We must consider the possibility that some references to God as king predate the Israelite