God required Israel’s king to keep a personal copy of the Law and read it throughout his life. He would have officials to advise him and soldiers to carry out his orders, but none of them could take responsibility for his obedience. I find the reason God gave especially searching: the king needed to learn the fear of the LORD so that his heart would not rise above his brethren. A throne could give him authority over people without making him any less in need of correction.
God Put the King Under His Written Word
Moses gave this instruction before Israel crossed the Jordan, long before the nation had a royal palace or court. God knew the people would ask for a king like the nations around them, and He established the limits of that office before anyone occupied it.
When you come to the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, “I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,” you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.
Israel could not choose just anyone or give him unrestricted power. The LORD would choose the king, and the man had to be an Israelite, a brother among the people he governed. His royal position would not exempt him from the covenant or entitle him to disregard its commands. He answered to the same Law as the people who answered to him. The study on The Mosaic Covenant explains that national covenant setting.
God then named several things the king was not to accumulate for himself:
But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the LORD has said to you, “You shall not return that way again.” Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
Horses supplied military strength, and a king could begin to trust his chariots more than the God who had delivered Israel. Obtaining them from Egypt would turn the people back toward the nation from which the LORD had freed them. Marriages could serve political alliances as well as personal desire, but God expressly warned that multiplying wives could turn the king’s heart away from God. Great stores of private wealth presented another temptation: a ruler could use his authority to enrich himself at his people’s expense.
These restrictions challenged the king’s desire for power, wealth, and security apart from God. To help him recognize and resist those temptations, the LORD required him to keep reading His Word:
Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.
The king was to make a copy, keep it with him, and read it all the days of his life. A book displayed at his coronation or kept somewhere in the palace would not satisfy that instruction. He needed to learn what God required and remain willing to obey it when military advisers, political opportunities, or his own appetite urged him in another direction.
Reading was to teach the king to fear the LORD, and that reverence was to govern his decisions. The command therefore required more than a regular reading habit. He could not claim to revere God while treating the commandment as something he was entitled to set aside. God also connected this obedience with a long reign for the king and his descendants in Israel. The horses, wealth, and alliances he gathered could not secure the future he endangered by disobeying God.
I don’t think we should restrict pride here to a king making grand claims about himself. He could also reveal it by refusing correction, expecting privileges God had forbidden, or treating ordinary Israelites as though they existed to maintain his comfort. Scripture reminded him that they were his brethren. David later stated the duty of a ruler plainly:
He who rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
Justice could not depend on what was convenient for the palace. The king needed a standard that could expose his own wrongdoing, and God supplied it in His written Word. The study on The Fear of the LORD develops this connection between reverence for God and obedience.
The King’s Copy Had to Be Personal and Trustworthy
The command made the king personally responsible for writing a copy he would keep and read. Scripture does not explain whether scribes assisted him or precisely how the scroll was produced. Whatever help he had in preparing it, he could not delegate the responsibility to read and obey God’s Word.
His copy was to come “from the one before the priests, the Levites.” He was not free to devise a private version that favored his policies. He had to follow the text entrusted to the priests, even when it challenged his preferences. Royal authority gave him no right to edit God’s requirements.
Deuteronomy 31 explains how the Law was entrusted to Israel’s appointed custodians:
So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.
The written covenant was also to be heard by the people. At the Feast of Tabernacles in the year of release, every seventh year, it was to be read before the assembled nation:
And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.”
Moses also directed where the Book was to be kept and explained how it would confront Israel’s disobedience:
Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there as a witness against you.
The king’s copy therefore belonged to a wider responsibility to preserve, hear, and obey what God had said. The written covenant preserved God’s requirements even when rulers preferred to forget them or the people neglected to teach them. A king might claim divine approval for a policy, but the people had a written standard by which that claim could be tested. Keeping the Book beside the ark served a different purpose from the king’s personal copy. Israel needed both the preserved text and people who continued to hear and obey it.
When Joshua succeeded Moses as the leader who would bring Israel into the land, he received a related instruction:
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.
Joshua was to give sustained attention to God’s Word so that he would know what obedience required and act on it. Reciting the words while disregarding their commands would defeat the purpose. The same responsibility appears in the king’s instruction: familiarity with the Law was to shape how he governed. The Law examines these covenant requirements more fully.
Later, Isaiah condemned the corruption that flourished when men with influence abandoned God’s requirements:
Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away justice from the righteous man!
A bribe could secure a favorable verdict for a wicked man while an innocent person lost the justice due to him. Those responsible for judging were using their position for their own benefit. Deuteronomy’s command required the king to remember both the LORD who ruled over him and the brethren entrusted to his care. He could not obey that command while using his office to exploit them.
Israel’s Kings Show Why the Command Was Needed
The historical books do not describe a named king writing his personal copy of the Law. I would not take a king’s support for reform as proof that he fulfilled that particular command. The Kings of Israel traces the monarchy as a whole.
When the people asked Samuel for a king in 1 Samuel 8, they wanted to be like the surrounding nations. Samuel warned them that a king would take their sons for his service, their daughters for his household work, and their fields and produce to supply his court. His demands would reach their servants and flocks as well. Deuteronomy had already limited royal ambition, but the people were eager for a king who would fight their battles.
Saul soon demonstrated how a ruler could resist correction to protect his position. In 1 Samuel 13, he waited seven days, but when Samuel had not arrived and the people were scattering, he offered a burnt offering himself. When Samuel confronted him, Saul appealed to the people’s departure and the Philistine threat to defend what he had done. Samuel told him, “You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God” (1 Samuel 13:13). Later, after Saul failed to carry out the command concerning Amalek, Samuel said, “Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23). Saul eventually admitted his sin, yet asked Samuel to honor him before the elders and the people. He wanted Samuel’s public support even after rejecting the Word Samuel had delivered. The study on King Saul examines those events further.
David also sinned grievously and needed God’s mercy, yet he was willing to receive correction. When he first tried to bring the ark to Jerusalem, the procession used a cart, and Uzzah died after touching the ark. When David later prepared to bring it to Jerusalem, he acknowledged that they had failed to follow God’s prescribed order. The Levites then carried it on their shoulders by its poles, as Moses had commanded (1 Chronicles 15:13-15). David’s desire to honor God did not make the first arrangement acceptable; he needed to change what he had done. The love for God’s Law expressed in his psalms needed to govern these practical arrangements as well. The Life of King David follows both his faith and his serious failures.
Solomon violated the royal instructions almost point by point. He multiplied horses and imported them from Egypt, accumulated enormous wealth, and loved many foreign women who turned his heart after other gods. His God-given wisdom did not prevent him from choosing the very course Deuteronomy had warned against. I find his example sobering: I can understand a command clearly and still make excuses for disobeying it. The Wisdom of Solomon considers the gifts Solomon received and the responsibility that accompanied them.
Among Judah’s later kings, Jehoshaphat sent leaders, Levites, and priests through the cities with the Book of the Law to teach the people (2 Chronicles 17:7-9). He used his authority to make sure the people received instruction from the same Law that governed him.
Uzziah prospered while he sought the LORD, but when he became strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. He entered the temple to burn incense, usurping work assigned to the priests. When they opposed him, he became angry rather than accepting the boundary God had established. He was struck with leprosy and remained excluded from the temple for the rest of his life (2 Chronicles 26). His success had given him no authority to disregard God’s command.
Hezekiah trusted the LORD, kept His commandments, and removed the high places where unauthorized worship had continued (2 Kings 18:3-6). During the later reign of Josiah, the Book of the Law was found and read to the king. Josiah tore his clothes and sent to inquire of the LORD. He recognized that Judah had not obeyed the words of the Book. He then read the covenant before the people and acted against the idolatry entrenched in the nation (2 Kings 22-23).
Josiah allowed God’s Word to expose the nation’s sin, included himself among those accountable to it, and acted on what he heard. His response demonstrates the humility Deuteronomy required. These kings were not all alike, and none was sinless. Their reigns show the harm rulers caused by refusing correction, along with the good they could do by obeying God and calling the people back to Him.
Jesus Is the King Whose Heart Never Turned Aside
Even Israel’s better kings could not supply the perfect, lasting rule the nation needed. David required forgiveness, and his descendants repeatedly failed. God’s promise to his house points us beyond those failures to Jesus Christ, David’s Son and David’s Lord. The Davidic Covenant examines that promise.
David’s words in Psalm 40 express delight in doing God’s will:
I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.
In Hebrews 10:5-10, Paul applies the surrounding passage to Christ’s coming to do the will of God through the offering of His body. Jesus obeyed with the wholehearted faithfulness that Israel’s kings lacked. Zechariah also spoke of the promised King’s righteousness and humility:
Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Jesus is the eternal Son, fully God and fully man. He took on flesh without ceasing to be God, and in His true humanity He grew and learned. Through temptation and suffering, He remained sinless. When Satan challenged Him in the wilderness to turn stones into bread, Jesus answered from Deuteronomy:
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'”
Jesus was hungry, but Satan’s demand was no reason for Him to act apart from the Father’s will. He also refused to worship Satan in exchange for the kingdoms of the world. Unlike the kings who let power and appetite govern them, He continued in obedience. When I consider His use of Scripture, I need to remember who was answering Satan. He is the Word made flesh, the divine Son living a truly human life of perfect faithfulness. Jesus Knowing the Scriptures From His Youth considers His knowledge of Scripture during His earthly life.
This sinless King willingly offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for sinners. Wicked men tortured and crucified Him, inflicting real suffering on His innocent body. He endured their violence as He gave His life for our sins. He shed His blood and died, completing His saving sacrifice before He was buried and rose bodily from the grave. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were united in the work of saving us.
Reading God’s commands can expose our sins, but it cannot undo them. We need the salvation Christ accomplished through His sacrifice. He died for the sins of the whole world, and God genuinely offers salvation to every person. His grace can be resisted, but everyone who repents and believes in Jesus is forgiven and born again. The Holy Spirit indwells and seals the believer, who is eternally secure in Christ. Obedience is evidence of that new life, never the payment for it or the means of keeping it.
Leaders Still Need Scripture’s Correction
The command to copy the Law was given to Israel’s kings within the Mosaic covenant. The church does not occupy Israel’s throne or serve as a state governed under that covenant. I would not impose the king’s copying requirement on every modern leader. Civil leaders still answer to God, and we can learn from the king’s need to hear His Word. Church leaders also have direct New Testament instructions. Paul told Timothy:
Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Exhortation urges people to respond rightly to God’s truth, while doctrine gives them instruction in that truth. The congregation needed to hear Scripture itself as the basis for the teacher’s instruction and appeal. Paul also explained why Scripture must govern the servant of God:
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
Inspiration means that Scripture is given by God; its authority does not come from the teacher who quotes it. It teaches what is true, reproves us by exposing what is wrong, and corrects and trains us to live rightly. A pastor who uses a passage to rebuke the congregation must also be willing to receive its rebuke himself. If he excuses his own conduct while insisting that everyone else submit, he is acting as though his position exempts him from the truth he teaches.
Parents need that correction in the home as well. A father can require honesty from his children while making excuses for his own dishonesty, or demand respectful speech while speaking harshly to everyone around him. Reading Scripture should bring those inconsistencies into the open so that he can repent and change. The responsibilities differ, but neither the home nor the church gives anyone authority to excuse conduct that Scripture condemns.
I need to receive Scripture’s correction before using it to correct someone else. That requires more than finding a verse to support a decision I have already made. I need to read the passage in context, understand what it requires, and recognize where I have disregarded a command because I preferred my own way. How to Study the Bible Properly gives practical help with that work. Authority can make self-deception easier when people hesitate to challenge us, which is one reason we should be grateful for a written Word that does not flatter our position.
My Final Thoughts
God required the king to read throughout his life because he would never outgrow his need to fear the LORD and obey Him. His people remained his brethren, and the Law could correct the pride that threatened both him and those he governed. I need that correction in whatever responsibility God gives me. When Scripture exposes something wrong, the proper response is to submit to it and make the change, rather than appeal to my position to avoid correction. Jesus alone has ruled with perfect righteousness, and the authority we exercise should remain subject to Him.