Deuteronomy 17
You shall surely set him king over you, whom YAHWEH your God shall choose
In chapter 17, Moses tells the people what to do about capital punishment as well as what to do when legal controversies arise. Then he tells them the requirements for the king that they will choose to have one day.
Bible Passage:
17:1 You shall not sacrifice to YAHWEH your God an ox, or a sheep, in which is a blemish, or anything evil; for that is an abomination to YAHWEH your God.
2 If there is found in the midst of you, within any of your gates which YAHWEH your God gives you, man or woman, that does that which is evil in the sight of YAHWEH your God, in transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshipped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, 4 and it is told to you, and you have heard of it; then you shall inquire diligently. And, behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is worked in Israel, 5 then you shall bring forth that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, that is the man or the woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones. 6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall the one that is to die be put to death. At the mouth of one witness, he shall not be put to death. 7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.
8 If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then you shall arise, and get up to the place which YAHWEH your God shall choose; 9 and you shall come to the priests and the Levites, and to the judge that shall be in those days, and you shall inquire. They shall show you the sentence of judgment. 10 And you shall do according to the tenor of the sentence which they shall show you from that place which YAHWEH shall choose; and you shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you. 11 According to the tenor of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left. 12 And the man that acts presumptuously, in not listening to the priest that stands to minister there before YAHWEH your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. You shall put away the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.
14 When you have come to the land which YAHWEH your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell in it, and shall say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are round about me;’ 15 you shall surely set him king over you, whom YAHWEH your God shall choose. One from among your brothers shall be set king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, for the purpose that he may multiply horses, since YAHWEH has said to you, ‘You shall from here on return no more that way.’ 17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, that his heart not turn away. Nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
18 And it shall be, when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests and the Levites, 19 and it shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear YAHWEH his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; 20 that his heart might not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he might not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left; in order that he might prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.
Reflection:
So much of Deuteronomy feels like a book of ideals when you know what happens in the rest of Israel’s history in the Old Testament. There is so much hope and belief in what the future will be like for the people if they choose to obey and trust in YAHWEH. The joy there must have been about the king that will come, who will write out a copy of the law of Moses for himself, to read from it all the days of his life. A king who will remain humble and not lift his heart above his brothers or turn from God’s commandments. Imagine how heartbreaking this must be to then see David come and go, and watch what happens to Solomon, to Rehoboam, all the way down to Manasseh, with brief moments of resurgence, and then exile. Without recognizing Jesus as the answer to these hopes, the kingship must be like a shattered dream for the Jews.
Questions and Answers:
Verse 9: What does verdict mean? [Elisha, 8]
NASB has “verdict” in place of “sentence of judgment” in this verse.
A verdict in English is the decision made in a legal case. The point of this paragraph is to explain what the people should do if there are any matters that they need someone to decide legally for them. If the people have a dispute between them and they cannot settle it themselves, they are meant to go to the place which God chooses and visit the priests, Levites, and Judge. They will hear the details of the situation and then give a verdict. Whatever verdict the priests, the Levites, and the Judge made, they will tell the people involved in the legal proceeding. The people are meant to honor whatever the decision was, and do whatever it is that they were told to do.
Verse 12: What does it mean “to purge the evil from Israel”? [Gwendolyn, 9]
The phrase used here in the NASB, “purge the evil from” and the phrase in my update “put away the evil from” are both implying the same thing. Get rid of the evil that is in the midst of Israel. If someone refuses to listen to the verdicts made in legal cases, that is evil. Therefore, they should be put to death to remove their evil from Israel. The actual Hebrew root there is “baar,” which means “to burn.” The literal phrase in the Hebrew text is “you shall burn the evil from Israel.”
Verse 14: Is Saul their first king? [Monique, 33]
It depends what you mean by first. If you mean the first human king, then yes, Saul is the first human king of Israel. His story starts in 1 Samuel 9. His story is one of the greatest falls recorded in Scripture and is a cautionary tale for the ages. There is also far more context to be had by reading the book of Judges that helps us to understand who Saul is and where he comes from than most people realize, but we can talk about that when we get to him.
As far as the first king, no, Saul is not the first king. That is YAHWEH. In fact, the chapter just before Saul is made king tells us that explicitly. The focus of 1 Samuel 8 is that the people of Israel have utterly rejected YAHWEH as their King, and want a human king just like all the other nations. YAHWEH in his supreme graciousness and humility allows them to have one, noting how rebellious they have been since the days of leaving Egypt. But he tells Samuel to let them know what having a human king is like. Once Samuel tells them how awful having a human king will be, they still clamor and beg for one anyway. So God allows it, but just like he said here, he will be the one to choose the man who will become king.
Verse 17: Do David and Solomon break the laws God has for the king? [Monique, 33]
Well, we know that they break laws that God has for the king generally, but our focus here is on the command that is written here in verse 17. So we will ignore instances like David’s sin with Bathsheba, the census he takes, and so on, and focus on what it says here. As far as David goes, the Scriptures never say anywhere that he is guilty of doing this kind of thing, of multiplying wealth and wives. We do know that David had a handful of wives, but I don’t think that is what was being referred to here. I can think of three wives off the top of my head, Michal, Abigail, and Bathsheba. I think there were more than that, but you don’t have stories about these other wives in the Bible, so they are a bit more obscure. I just went to look and it seems he had 8 wives. So, the text could be more neutral about whether David was really doing this or not.
When it comes to Solomon however, the text is very clear. He absolutely was guilty of multiplying wives and wealth. What had started out so promising for him ended with him being in great sin. He had 300 wives and 700 concubines, according to 1 Kings 11. Exactly like this passage warned, they turned his heart away from YAHWEH and to their demonic gods. He started serving Ashtoreth, and even built high places to worship Chemosh and Molech. Solomon absolutely broke these laws of YAHWEH.
Recording of the Passage:
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