1 Samuel 10:25

¹¹He said, “This will be the way of the king who shall reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them as his servants, for his chariots and to be his horsemen; and they will run before his chariots. ¹²He will appoint them to him for captains of thousands and captains of fifties; and he will assign some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest; and to make his instruments of war and the instruments of his chariots. ¹³He will take your daughters to be perfumers, to be cooks, and to be bakers. ¹⁴He will take your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, even your best, and give them to his servants. ¹⁵He will take one tenth of your seed and of your vineyards, and give it to his officers and to his servants. ¹⁶He will take your male servants, your female servants, your best young men, and your donkeys, and assign them to his own work. ¹⁷He will take one tenth of your flocks; and you will be his servants. ¹⁸You will cry out in that day because of your king whom you will have chosen for yourselves; and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”

¹⁴When you have come to the land which the LORD your God gives 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,” ¹⁵you shall surely set him whom the LORD your God chooses as king over yourselves. You shall set as king over you one from among your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because the LORD has said to you, “You shall not go back that way again.” ¹⁷He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

¹⁸It shall be, when he sits on 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 Levitical priests. ¹⁹It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; ²⁰that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn away from the commandment to the right hand, or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the middle of Israel.

¹³Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme, ¹⁴or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do well.

⁹“‘The Lord GOD says: “Enough, you princes of Israel! Remove violence and plunder, and execute justice and righteousness! Stop dispossessing my people!” says the Lord GOD. ¹⁰“You shall have just balances, a just ephah,^[+] and a just bath.

²for kings and all who are in high places, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and reverence.

¹⁶“‘The Lord GOD says: “If the prince gives a gift to any of his sons, it is his inheritance. It shall belong to his sons. It is their possession by inheritance. ¹⁷But if he gives of his inheritance a gift to one of his servants, it shall be his to the year of liberty; then it shall return to the prince; but as for his inheritance, it shall be for his sons. ¹⁸Moreover the prince shall not take of the people’s inheritance, to thrust them out of their possession. He shall give inheritance to his sons out of his own possession, that my people not each be scattered from his possession.”’”

¹Remind them to be in subjection to rulers and to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,

¹Let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those who exist are ordained by God. ²Therefore he who resists the authority withstands the ordinance of God; and those who withstand will receive to themselves judgment. ³For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Do you desire to have no fear of the authority? Do that which is good, and you will have praise from the authority, ⁴for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn’t bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil. ⁵Therefore you need to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. ⁶For this reason you also pay taxes, for they are servants of God’s service, continually doing this very thing. ⁷Therefore give everyone what you owe: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if customs, then customs; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.