Kings of Israel

(Deuteronomy 17:14 - 17:20)

"After you have entered the land that Jehovah your god has given to you, have occupied and settled it, you may say, "Let's have a king to rule over us like all the neighboring countries do."  Be sure to accept as your a king only he who has been selected by Jehovah your god.  He must be a fellow countryman; do not pick a foreigner, one who is not of your people, to rule over you.  The king should not breed a large stable of horses for himself or bid his people to go to Egypt to acquire more for him, because Jehovah has told you, "Do not go back that way again!”  He must not take too many wives, for they are apt turn his mind from the way of Jehovah.  Nor should he amass for himself an excessive amount of silver and gold.

"When he assumes the throne as king, he must keep a record of these instructions for himself in a book, copied from that of the Levitical priests.  He is have it with him always and read it every day of his life so that he may learn to revere Jehovah his god, to keep all the words of his laws, and to execute these statutes.  He must not come to feel himself superior to his fellow Israelites or alter the law in any way, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel." 

Notes

1. Jehovah demands that Israelite kings do not seek to acquire too much personal wealth, horses, wives, gold and silver.  Good luck with that.  Ironically, King Solomon of Israel, who built the Jehovan Temple, was famed for his wealth and the size of his harem.  He seemed to get on OK, but later, King Herod was not totally accepted by the people of Israel because he was regarded as a foreigner.

2. The king is not supposed to have too many horses and must on no account go to Egypt to stock his stables.  At this time the Israelites had cattle and sheep, goats and donkeys, but there has been no reference to horses.  The breeds of horses existent at that time were not used as beasts of burden.  Donkeys pulled carts, oxen pulled plows, and everybody walked.  In the 16th Century BC the Hyksos introduced the horse-drawn war chariot to Egypt.  Outside of the steppes of Eurasian, horses were never used as mounts until about 800 BC -- and it would be hundreds of years before effective bridles were invented.  It seems unlikely that an Israelite king would want horses for himself, unless the reference here is to war horses.

3. The king is suppose to have a written copy of Jehovah's laws to refer to on a daily basis.  Great, only at this time, as has been oft noted, the Hebrews lived in a preliterate culture.  There were no alphabets, no writing, save Egyptian hieroglyphics and Babylonian cuneiform.  Even if Moses probably knew the latter, it is unlikely that the Israelites would have used either.  It had been centuries since the Israelites had been in contact with Mesopotamia, and considering the animosity Jehovah harbored against the Egyptians, it is improbable that he would have sanctioned the use of their writing.  It is assumed, of course, that the writing would be in Hebrew, but that was a language that would not be developed for hundreds of years.  This is another indication that the writers of the Bible were entirely clueless about conditions in former times and were woefully deluded about the true history of their own people.