1 Samuel 8:11-18

8:11 He said, “Here are the policies of the king who will rule over you: He will conscript your sons and put them in his chariot forces and in his cavalry; they will run in front of his chariot. 8:12 He will appoint for himself leaders of thousands and leaders of fifties, ¹  as well as those who plow his ground, reap his harvest, and make his weapons of war and his chariot equipment. 8:13 He will take your daughters to be ointment makers, cooks, and bakers. 8:14 He will take your best fields and vineyards and give them to his own servants. 8:15 He will demand a tenth of your seed and of the produce of your vineyards and give it to his administrators ²  and his servants. 8:16 He will take your male and female servants, as well as your best cattle and your donkeys, and assign them for his own use. 8:17 He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will be his servants. 8:18 In that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord won’t answer you in that day.” ³ 

Deuteronomy 17:14-20

Provision for Kingship

17:14 When you come to the land the Lord your God is giving you and take it over and live in it and then say, “I will select a king like all the nations surrounding me,” 17:15 you must select without fail ⁴  a king whom the Lord your God chooses. From among your fellow citizens ⁵  you must appoint a king – you may not designate a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites. ⁶  17:16 Moreover, he must not accumulate horses for himself or allow the people to return to Egypt to do so, ⁷  for the Lord has said you must never again return that way. 17:17 Furthermore, he must not marry many ⁸  wives lest his affections turn aside, and he must not accumulate much silver and gold. 17:18 When he sits on his royal throne he must make a copy of this law ⁹  on a scroll ¹⁰  given to him by the Levitical priests. 17:19 It must be with him constantly and he must read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and observe all the words of this law and these statutes and carry them out. 17:20 Then he will not exalt himself above his fellow citizens or turn from the commandments to the right or left, and he and his descendants will enjoy many years ruling over his kingdom ¹¹  in Israel.

Ezekiel 45:9-10

45:9 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Enough, you princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction, and do what is just and right. Put an end to your evictions of my people, ¹²  declares the sovereign Lord. 45:10 You must use just balances, ¹³  a just dry measure (an ephah), ¹⁴  and a just liquid measure (a bath). ¹⁵ 

Ezekiel 46:16-18

46:16 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: If the prince should give a gift to one of his sons as ¹⁶  his inheritance, it will belong to his sons, it is their property by inheritance. 46:17 But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it will be his until the year of liberty; ¹⁷  then it will revert to the prince. His inheritance will only remain with his sons. 46:18 The prince will not take away any of the people’s inheritance by oppressively removing them from their property. He will give his sons an inheritance from his own possessions so that my people will not be scattered, each from his own property.’”

Romans 13:1-7

Submission to Civil Government

13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, ¹⁸  and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 13:2 So the person who resists such authority ¹⁹  resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will incur judgment 13:3 (for rulers cause no fear for good conduct but for bad). Do you desire not to fear authority? Do good and you will receive its commendation, 13:4 for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be in fear, for it does not bear the sword in vain. It is God’s servant to administer retribution on the wrongdoer. 13:5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath of the authorities ²⁰  but also because of your conscience. ²¹  13:6 For this reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities ²²  are God’s servants devoted to governing. ²³  13:7 Pay everyone what is owed: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

Romans 13:1

Submission to Civil Government

13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, ²⁴  and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

Romans 2:2

2:2 Now we know that God’s judgment is in accordance with truth ²⁵  against those who practice such things.

Titus 3:1

Conduct Toward Those Outside the Church

3:1 Remind them to be subject to rulers and ²⁶  authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work.

Titus 3:1

Conduct Toward Those Outside the Church

3:1 Remind them to be subject to rulers and ²⁷  authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work.

Titus 2:13-14

2:13 as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing ²⁸  of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. ²⁹  2:14 He ³⁰  gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, ³¹  who are eager to do good. ³² 

[8:12]  ¹ tc The numbers of v. 12 are confused in the Greek and Syriac versions. For “fifties” the LXX has “hundreds.” The Syriac Peshitta has “heads of thousands and heads of hundreds and heads of fifties and heads of tens,” perhaps reflecting influence from Deut 1:15.

[8:15]  ² tn Or “eunuchs” (so NAB); NIV “officials”; KJV, NASB, NRSV, NLT “officers.”

[8:18]  ³ tc The LXX adds “because you have chosen for yourselves a king.”

[17:15]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, indicated in the translation by the words “without fail.”

[17:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “your brothers,” but not referring to siblings (cf. NIV “your brother Israelites”; NLT “a fellow Israelite”). The same phrase also occurs in v. 20.

[17:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “your brothers.” See the preceding note on “fellow citizens.”

[17:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “in order to multiply horses.” The translation uses “do so” in place of “multiply horses” to avoid redundancy (cf. NAB, NIV).

[17:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “must not multiply” (cf. KJV, NASB); NLT “must not take many.”

[17:18]  ⁹ tn Or “instruction.” The LXX reads here τὸ δευτερονόμιον τοῦτο (to deuteronomion touto, “this second law”). From this Greek phrase the present name of the book, “Deuteronomy” or “second law” (i.e., the second giving of the law), is derived. However, the MT’s expression מִשְׁנֶה הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת (mishneh hattorah hazzo’t) is better rendered “copy of this law.” Here the term תּוֹרָה (torah) probably refers only to the book of Deuteronomy and not to the whole Pentateuch.

[17:18]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term סֵפֶר (sefer) means a “writing” or “document” and could be translated “book” (so KJV, ASV, TEV). However, since “book” carries the connotation of a modern bound book with pages (an obvious anachronism) it is preferable to render the Hebrew term “scroll” here and elsewhere.

[17:20]  ¹¹ tc Heb “upon his kingship.” Smr supplies כִּסֵא (kise’, “throne”) so as to read “upon the throne of his kingship.” This overliteralizes what is a clearly understood figure of speech.

[45:9]  ¹² sn Evictions of the less fortunate by the powerful are described in 1 Kgs 21:1-16; Jer 22:1-5, 13-17; Ezek 22:25.

[45:10]  ¹³ sn Previous legislation regarding this practice may be found in Lev 19:35-36; Deut 25:13-16; Mic 6:10-12.

[45:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “ephah,” which was 1/2 bushel.

[45:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “bath,” a liquid measure, was 5 1/2 gallons.

[46:16]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text has no preposition; the LXX reads “from” (see v. 17).

[46:17]  ¹⁷ sn That is, the year of Jubilee (Lev 25:8-15).

[13:1]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “by God.”

[13:2]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “the authority,” referring to the authority just described.

[13:5]  ²⁰ tn Grk “its wrath”; the referent (the governing authorities) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:5]  ²¹ tn Grk “because of (the) conscience,” but the English possessive “your” helps to show whose conscience the context implies.

[13:6]  ²² tn Grk “they”; the referent (the governing authorities) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:6]  ²³ tn Grk “devoted to this very thing.”

[13:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “by God.”

[2:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “based on truth.”

[3:1]  ²⁶ tc Most later witnesses (D² 0278 Ï lat sy) have καί (kai, “and”) after ἀρχαῖς (arcai", “rulers”), though the earliest and best witnesses (א A C D* F G Ψ 33 104 1739 1881) lack the conjunction. Although the καί is most likely not authentic, it has been added in translation due to the requirements of English style. For more discussion, see TCGNT 586.

[3:1]  ²⁷ tc Most later witnesses (D² 0278 Ï lat sy) have καί (kai, “and”) after ἀρχαῖς (arcai", “rulers”), though the earliest and best witnesses (א A C D* F G Ψ 33 104 1739 1881) lack the conjunction. Although the καί is most likely not authentic, it has been added in translation due to the requirements of English style. For more discussion, see TCGNT 586.

[2:13]  ²⁸ tn Grk “the blessed hope and glorious appearing.”

[2:13]  ²⁹ tn The terms “God and Savior” both refer to the same person, Jesus Christ. This is one of the clearest statements in the NT concerning the deity of Christ. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. The only issue is whether terms such as “God” and “Savior” could be considered common nouns as opposed to proper names. Sharp and others who followed (such as T. F. Middleton in his masterful The Doctrine of the Greek Article) demonstrated that a proper name in Greek was one that could not be pluralized. Since both “God” (θεός, qeos) and “savior” (σωτήρ, swthr) were occasionally found in the plural, they did not constitute proper names, and hence, do fit Sharp’s rule. Although there have been 200 years of attempts to dislodge Sharp’s rule, all attempts have been futile. Sharp’s rule stands vindicated after all the dust has settled. For more information on Sharp’s rule see ExSyn 270-78, esp. 276. See also 2 Pet 1:1 and Jude 4.

[2:14]  ³⁰ tn Grk “who” (as a continuation of the previous clause).

[2:14]  ³¹ tn Or “a people who are his very own.”

[2:14]  ³² tn Grk “for good works.”