11 He said, ^y“These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: ^zhe 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 ^ato 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 ^bHe 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 men¹ 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, ^cbut 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, ^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 by¹ 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.