Professor Israel Knohl points out that several biblical passages imply that God was ritually enthroned as king during the Jewish new year celebrations. In the Torah itself, however, this view is suppressed. God as king appears only in three ancient poetic passages, never in the Torah’s prose or laws, including in its description of the Jewish New Year Festival Rosh Hashanah.

The Torah takes a skeptical perspective on the institution of the monarchy. The collections of laws that precede the Book of Deuteronomy make no mention of future kings, preferring to speak of the leader of a tribe. Thus, in Exodus’ Covenant Collection, the law cautions that one must not “put a curse upon a leader among your people” (Exodus 22:27).

Similarly, in the Priestly laws of Leviticus, the law of the sin offering does not discuss the sin of a king, but instead says, “in case it is a leader who incurs guilt” (Leviticus 4:22).

Deuteronomy does dedicate a law to the king, but the central aim of this law is to reduce the authority of the king and to constrain him in terms of his economic resources and military power.

Professor Israel Knohl states “In contrast to ancient Near Eastern monarchs, nowhere does Deuteronomy hint that the king is involved in judicial affairs. Instead, the most difficult decisions are brought “before the priests, or the magistrate in charge at the time” Deuteronomy 17:9). Deuteronomy also gives no indication that the king would have any role in the Temple cult.

The Torah’s reservations about a monarchy’s power are not only about human kingship, but even divine kingship. The Torah uses parent-child imagery to describe YHWH’s relationship with Israel: Deuteronomy 14:1 You are children of YHWH your God… Deut 32:6 Is not He the Father who created you, fashioned you and made you endure! Deut 8:5 Bear in mind that YHWH your God disciplines you just as a man disciplines his son.

God is also described as a lover who desires the Israelites: Deut 7:7 It is not because you are the most numerous of peoples that YHWH set His heart on you and chose you — indeed, you are the smallest of peoples; 7:8 but it was because YHWH favored you and kept the oath He made to your fathers… Deut 10:15 Yet it was to your fathers that YHWH was drawn in His love for them, so that He chose you, their lineal descendants, from among all peoples as is now the case.

Moreover, YHWH is a jealous lover when Israel betrays Him and worships other gods (Deut 4:24; 6:14-15). In no part of the prose or laws of the Torah, however, is God called a king. This is particularly surprising because it is commonly accepted that the model of the scriptural covenant is drawn from the political reality of the ancient East, where the........

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