Sandwiched in here, though, is a short section about the possibility of an Israelite king. This subject has never come up before and I'm not exactly sure why it comes up now. If the people have been talking about wanting a king it hasn't come up in the narrative. Later on when the time comes God makes it clear that He didn't want them to have a king...that He was to be their king. Yet here it is in Moses' address to the people. It almost seems prophetic, in a negative way, because all the things that Moses says about what the king should be and do get broken by most of the kings they have. Here's what he says:
When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” be sure to appoint over you a king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.I don't think they ever chose a foreigner for a king but Solomon alone disobeyed most of the rest of this.
When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel. (17:14-20)
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