He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold. He must not take many wives for himselfThis phrase is a direct command to the king of Israel, emphasizing the importance of monogamy and the dangers of polygamy. The Hebrew word for "wives" is "נָשִׁים" (nashim), which is the plural form of "אִשָּׁה" (ishah), meaning "woman" or "wife." In the ancient Near Eastern context, kings often took multiple wives to form political alliances and demonstrate their wealth and power. However, this command highlights a counter-cultural stance, urging the king to avoid such practices. The wisdom here is profound, as taking many wives often led to divided loyalties and idolatry, as seen in the life of Solomon ( 1 Kings 11:1-4). The instruction serves as a reminder that the king's heart should remain undivided and fully devoted to God. or his heart will be led astray
The phrase "his heart will be led astray" warns of the spiritual and moral dangers associated with disobedience to God's commands. The Hebrew word for "heart" is "לֵב" (lev), which in biblical terms often refers to the inner self, including one's mind, will, and emotions. The heart is the seat of decision-making and devotion. The warning here is that the king's heart, if not guarded, can be easily swayed by external influences, leading him away from God's statutes. Historically, this was a significant issue for Israelite kings, as foreign wives often brought their gods and religious practices, leading to syncretism and idolatry. The phrase serves as a timeless reminder of the importance of guarding one's heart and remaining steadfast in faith. Nor amass for himself large amounts of silver and gold
This command addresses the king's relationship with wealth and material possessions. The Hebrew word for "amass" is "רָבָה" (ravah), meaning to multiply or increase. The accumulation of "silver and gold" symbolizes wealth and economic power. In the ancient world, a king's wealth was often seen as a measure of his success and security. However, this command cautions against the pursuit of wealth for its own sake, as it can lead to pride, self-reliance, and a departure from trusting in God's provision. The historical context of Israel's kings, such as Solomon, who amassed great wealth (1 Kings 10:14-23), serves as a cautionary tale of how material abundance can lead to spiritual decline. This instruction encourages leaders to prioritize spiritual riches over material wealth, trusting in God's provision and guidance. Persons / Places / Events 1. MosesThe author of Deuteronomy, delivering God's laws and instructions to the Israelites. 2. IsraelitesThe chosen people of God, receiving the laws as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. 3. Kings of IsraelThe future leaders of Israel, for whom these specific instructions are given to ensure righteous leadership. 4. Promised LandThe land of Canaan, which the Israelites are about to enter and where these laws will be applied. 5. GodThe ultimate authority and lawgiver, providing guidance for the well-being of His people. Teaching Points Guarding the HeartThe heart is susceptible to being led astray by desires and temptations. Leaders, especially, must be vigilant in maintaining their devotion to God. The Dangers of PolygamyThe instruction against taking many wives highlights the potential for divided loyalties and the spiritual dangers of polygamy. Wealth and ContentmentAccumulating wealth can lead to a false sense of security and distract from reliance on God. Contentment with what God provides is crucial. Leadership and IntegrityLeaders are called to a higher standard of integrity and must avoid the pitfalls of power, wealth, and personal indulgence. Obedience to God's CommandsAdhering to God's instructions is essential for personal and communal well-being, ensuring that leaders and followers alike remain faithful. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the warning against taking many wives apply to modern relationships and the concept of fidelity? 2. In what ways can the accumulation of wealth lead a person away from their faith, and how can one guard against this? 3. Reflect on a time when you faced a temptation similar to those described in Deuteronomy 17:17. How did you respond, and what did you learn? 4. How can leaders today apply the principles of Deuteronomy 17:17 to maintain integrity and faithfulness in their roles? 5. What practical steps can you take to ensure that your heart remains focused on God rather than being led astray by worldly desires? Connections to Other Scriptures 1 Kings 11:1-4This passage describes how King Solomon's many wives led him astray, directly illustrating the warning in Deuteronomy 17:17. 1 Timothy 6:10This verse warns against the love of money, connecting to the caution against accumulating large amounts of silver and gold. Matthew 6:19-21Jesus teaches about storing treasures in heaven rather than on earth, aligning with the principle of not accumulating excessive wealth. Proverbs 4:23This verse emphasizes guarding one's heart, which relates to the warning about the heart going astray due to many wives or wealth. Ecclesiastes 5:10This verse speaks to the futility of loving money, reinforcing the warning against accumulating wealth. People Levites, MosesPlaces Beth-baal-peor, EgyptTopics Accumulate, Amounts, Aside, Astray, Exceedingly, Fear, Gold, Greatly, Heart, Increase, Large, Led, Lest, Multiply, Silver, Turn, Wealth, WivesDictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 17:17 4333 gold
4363 silver
5014 heart, human
5732 polygamy
8299 love, in relationships 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 HebraicaThe 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 Links Deuteronomy 17:17 NIVDeuteronomy 17:17 NLTDeuteronomy 17:17 ESVDeuteronomy 17:17 NASBDeuteronomy 17:17 KJV
Deuteronomy 17:17 Commentaries
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