◄ Deuteronomy 17:16 ►
But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, 'You are never to go back that way again.'
Study Bible
But the king must not acquire many horses for himself
The phrase "must not acquire many horses" is rooted in the Hebrew understanding of power and reliance. Horses, in ancient Near Eastern cultures, were symbols of military strength and might. The Hebrew word for "acquire" (רָבָה, ravah) implies an accumulation or multiplication, suggesting that the king should not amass military power for personal aggrandizement. This command is a divine check against the temptation of kings to rely on military prowess rather than on God. Historically, horses were imported from Egypt, a nation known for its chariots and cavalry, which leads to the next part of the verse.

or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses
The directive against sending people back to Egypt is significant both historically and theologically. Egypt represents a place of bondage and oppression from which God delivered the Israelites. The Hebrew word for "send" (שׁוּב, shuv) also means "to return" or "to turn back," emphasizing a spiritual and physical regression. This command underscores the importance of trusting in God's provision and guidance rather than reverting to old dependencies. Archaeologically, evidence of trade routes between Israel and Egypt during the time of Solomon shows the temptation and ease of acquiring horses from Egypt, making this command particularly relevant.

for the LORD has said to you
This phrase highlights the authority and direct communication of God with His people. The use of "LORD" (יהוה, Yahweh) is the covenant name of God, reminding the Israelites of their unique relationship with Him. It is a call to obedience based on the covenantal promises and commands given to them. The historical context of this command is rooted in the Sinai covenant, where God established His laws and expectations for His chosen people.

‘You are never to go back that way again.’
The phrase "never to go back that way again" is a powerful reminder of the spiritual journey of the Israelites. The Hebrew word for "way" (דֶּרֶךְ, derek) can mean path or journey, symbolizing not just a physical route but a spiritual direction. This command is a call to move forward in faith and not regress to former ways of life that were marked by slavery and idolatry. It serves as a metaphor for the Christian life, where believers are encouraged to leave behind their old selves and walk in the newness of life in Christ. Historically, this command would have resonated deeply with the Israelites, who had experienced the miraculous deliverance from Egypt and were called to trust in God's future promises.

Persons / Places / Events
1. The King
Refers to the future monarchs of Israel, who were to lead the nation according to God's laws and principles.

2. Horses
Symbolic of military power and wealth in ancient times, often associated with the strength of a nation.

3. Egypt
A place of former bondage for the Israelites, representing a return to reliance on worldly power and past oppressions.

4. The LORD
The covenant God of Israel, who delivered them from Egypt and set forth laws for their governance.

5. Israel
The chosen people of God, who were to live distinctively under His commandments and not follow the practices of other nations.
Teaching Points
Avoiding Worldly Reliance
The command not to acquire many horses or return to Egypt underscores the importance of relying on God rather than worldly power or past securities.

Obedience to God's Commands
The king's adherence to God's laws was crucial for the spiritual health of the nation, highlighting the importance of obedience in leadership.

Trust in Divine Provision
By forbidding a return to Egypt, God calls His people to trust in His provision and guidance rather than seeking security in former places of bondage.

The Dangers of Materialism
Accumulating wealth and power can lead to a departure from God's ways, reminding believers to prioritize spiritual over material wealth.

Leadership Accountability
Leaders are held to a high standard of conduct, and their actions can lead the nation either towards or away from God's blessings.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the command in Deuteronomy 17:16 reflect God's desire for Israel to be distinct from other nations?

2. In what ways can modern believers be tempted to "return to Egypt" in their own lives, and how can they resist this temptation?

3. How does the accumulation of horses by Solomon in 1 Kings 10 serve as a cautionary tale for us today?

4. What are some practical ways we can ensure our reliance is on God rather than on worldly power or wealth?

5. How can leaders today apply the principles of Deuteronomy 17:16 to ensure they lead with integrity and obedience to God's commands?
Connections to Other Scriptures
1 Samuel 8
The Israelites demand a king to be like other nations, which leads to warnings about the potential abuses of royal power.

1 Kings 10:26-29
Solomon's accumulation of horses and chariots, illustrating a direct violation of this command.

Exodus 13:17
God's instruction to avoid returning to Egypt, emphasizing reliance on Him rather than former oppressors.

Isaiah 31:1
A warning against relying on Egypt for military aid, reinforcing the theme of trusting in God rather than human strength.
Sermons
Never AgainPreacher's MonthlyDeuteronomy 17:16
Never This Way AgainC. S. Robinson, D. D.Deuteronomy 17:16
Once for AllB. Knepper.Deuteronomy 17:16
The Irrevocable Past; Or, no Going BackH. Batchelor.Deuteronomy 17:16
The Past IrrevocableW. M. Taylor, D. D.Deuteronomy 17:16
Limitations Round About a KingD. Davies Deuteronomy 17:14-20
The King in IsraelJ. Orr Deuteronomy 17:14-20
The Limitations of MonarchyR.M. Edgar Deuteronomy 17:14-20
People
Levites, Moses
Places
Beth-baal-peor, Egypt
Topics
Acquire, Add, Army, Cause, Egypt, Forasmuch, Henceforth, Horses, Lead, Moreover, Multiply, Numbers, Order, Return, Seeing, Turn
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Deuteronomy 17:16

     4657   horse

Deuteronomy 17:14-20

     5366   king

Deuteronomy 17:16-17

     5120   Solomon, character

Deuteronomy 17:16-20

     7735   leaders, political

Library
Bethphage
There is very frequent mention of this place in the Talmudists: and, certainly, a more careful comparison of the maps with those things which are said by them of the situation of this place is worthy to be made; when they place it in mount Olivet, these make it contiguous to the buildings of Jerusalem. I. In the place cited in the margin, the case "of a stubborn judge" (or elder) is handling. For when, by the prescript of the law, difficult matters, and such things as concerning which the lower councils …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Reign of Saul.
I Sam. 8-31; I Chron. 10 The Demand for a King. The last period saw one tribe after another come to the front and assert itself through some leading man as an emergency arose, but now the tribes are to be united into a monarchy and this, too, at their own request made in the form of a desire for a king. Several things no doubt influenced them to make this request. (1) From the days of Joshua there had been no strong national bond. They were only held together by the law of Moses and the annual assemblages …
Josiah Blake Tidwell—The Bible Period by Period

'Make us a King'
'Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel, onto Ramah, 5. And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. 6. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. 7. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Adonijah
BY REV. ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B. It is notorious that the sons of devout men sometimes prove a curse to their parents, and bring dishonour on the cause of God. When Eve rejoiced over her first-born, she little suspected that passions were sleeping within him which would impel him to slay his own brother; and the experience of the first mother has been repeated, though in different forms, in all lands and in all ages. Isaac's heart was rent by the deceit of Jacob, and by the self-will of Esau. …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

Jehoiada and Joash
'And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 2. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 3. And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. 4. And the seventh year Jehoiada …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Bible in the Days of Jesus Christ
[Illustration: (drop cap S) Reading from a Roll--old Roman Painting] Slowly but surely, as time went on, God was adding to His Book, until about four hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ the Old Testament Scriptures, in their present shape, were completed. Many questions have been asked as to how the canon of the Old Testament was formed--that is, how and when did the Jews first begin to understand that the Books of the Old Testament were inspired by God. About the first five Books--the …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."--2 Kings …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

The Story of the Adulteress.
(Jerusalem.) ^D John VII. 53-VIII. 11. [This section is wanting in nearly all older manuscripts, but Jerome (a.d. 346-420) says that in his time it was contained in "many Greek and Latin manuscripts," and these must have been as good or better than the best manuscripts we now possess. But whether we regard it as part of John's narrative or not, scholars very generally accept it as a genuine piece of history.] ^d 53 And they went every man unto his own house [confused by the question of Nicodemus, …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Golden Eagle is Cut to Pieces. Herod's Barbarity when He was Ready to Die. He Attempts to Kill Himself. He Commands Antipater to be Slain.
1. Now Herod's distemper became more and more severe to him, and this because these his disorders fell upon him in his old age, and when he was in a melancholy condition; for he was already seventy years of age, and had been brought by the calamities that happened to him about his children, whereby he had no pleasure in life, even when he was in health; the grief also that Antipater was still alive aggravated his disease, whom he resolved to put to death now not at random, but as soon as he should …
Flavius Josephus—The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem

A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox.
[In the Prospectus of our Publication it was stated, that one discourse, at least, would be given in each number. A strict adherence to this arrangement, however, it is found, would exclude from our pages some of the most talented discourses of our early Divines; and it is therefore deemed expedient to depart from it as occasion may require. The following Sermon will occupy two numbers, and we hope, that from its intrinsic value, its historical interest, and the illustrious name of its author, it …
John Knox—The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements.
If a faithful picture of society in ancient Greece or Rome were to be presented to view, it is not easy to believe that even they who now most oppose the Bible could wish their aims success. For this, at any rate, may be asserted, without fear of gainsaying, that no other religion than that of the Bible has proved competent to control an advanced, or even an advancing, state of civilisation. Every other bound has been successively passed and submerged by the rising tide; how deep only the student …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Second Stage of Jewish Trial. Jesus Condemned by Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin.
(Palace of Caiaphas. Friday.) ^A Matt. XXVI. 57, 59-68; ^B Mark XIV. 53, 55-65; ^C Luke XXII. 54, 63-65; ^D John XVIII. 24. ^d 24 Annas therefore sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest. [Foiled in his attempted examination of Jesus, Annas sends him to trial.] ^b and there come together with him all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. ^a 57 And they that had taken Jesus led him away to the house of Caiaphas the high priest, ^c and brought him into the high priest's house. ^a where …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Easter Tuesday
Second Sermon. Same Text. Acts 13, 26-39. THE WORD AND THE RESURRECTION.[1] [Footnote 1: This sermon appeared first in the Church Postil, the Explanation of the Epistle and Gospel Texts from Easter to Advent. Printed by Hans Lufft, Wittenberg, 1559.] 1. This sermon was preached by Paul in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia, where were gathered with the Jews some Greek converts. Wherever in a city Jews were to be found, there also were their synagogues in which they taught and preached; and many …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Medes and the Second Chaldaean Empire
THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDAEAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES--THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY: CYAXARES, ALYATTES, AND NEBUCHADREZZAR. The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact of the Medes with the Assyrians: the alleged Iranian migrations of the Avesta--Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginning of the Median empire--Persia proper and the Persians; conquest of Persia by the Medes--The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal: the library of Kouyunjik--Phraortes …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf. …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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