“When you will come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall take possession of it, and you shall live in it, and you will say: I will install a king over me, like all the nations that are around me” (Deuteronomy 17:14). “When you will come to the land…” – halakha: A king of Israel who had a legal issue, what is the ruling? Is it permitted for him to go for a trial before the court?
This is what the Sages taught: A king cannot act as judge and others cannot judge him; he cannot testify and others cannot testify concerning him. Our Rabbis taught us: Why is it that others may not judge him? Rabbi Yirmeya said: As it is written regarding King David: “Let my judgment emerge from before You” (Psalms 17:2). That is, no person may judge the king except for the Holy One blessed be He.
The Rabbis said: The Holy One blessed be He said to Israel: ‘My children, I had thought that you would be free from the rule of kings.’ From where is this derived? It is as it is stated: “A wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness” (Jeremiah 2:24). Just as the wild donkey grows up in the wilderness and has no fear of man, so I thought that you would have no fear of kings.
But that is not what you sought. Instead, “at its soul's desire it inhales wind” (Jeremiah 2:24). “Wind” [here] refers to nothing other than kingdoms. From where is this derived?
It is as it is stated: “And behold, the four winds of the heavens bursting forth to the great sea”15The text there goes on to say that the four winds represent four kingdoms: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. (Daniel 7:2). The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘And if you should say that I do not know that you will ultimately forsake Me [by appointing a king], I already cautioned you through Moses. I said to him: Since, ultimately, they will request a flesh and blood king, from their midst they should crown a king over themselves, not a foreign king.’
From where is this derived? It is from what we read regarding the matter: “And you will say: I will install a king over me.”16In the following verse it says: “From among your brethren you shall install a king over you; you may not install over you a foreign man” (Deuteronomy 17:15).