Shevat 18 – When you come into the Land and say, “I will set a king over me…”

February 16, 2025

11 – Shevat, Deuteronomy

Moses

Shevat 18, 5785; from sunset February 15, 2025, to sunset February 16, 2025

(The eighteenth day of the eleventh month)

Sunset at Caesarea by the Sea. Photo credit: Today in the Bible.

This is the name “Mosheh” (מֺשֶׁה – Moses) as seen in the Dead Sea Scrolls, written over two thousand years ago.

Moses Repeats the Torah

If you have been following our posts on the book of Deuteronomy, congratulations! You are half-way through its 34 chapters. The intent of this blog has been to experience the stories in the Bible at the time that they occurred by placing them on the calendar which we use today. Today we’re reading through the second half of Deuteronomy 17 where Moses lays out the laws for the king.

Stipulations of the Covenant & Supplementary Requirements

“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. 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.

“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 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. – Deuteronomy 17:14-20 (NKJ)

To read all of our posts on the book of Deuteronomy, click on the image above.