When asked to make a copy of his translation for the Reformed congregation in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1651, Almeida discovered that the original had vanished from the church archives.
17 Jehovah directed that anyone who served as king over His people was, at the beginning of his kingship, to make a copy of God’s Law, basing it on the copy that was kept by the priests.
When Joshua was appointed as the overseer of the nation of Israel, he was instructed to make a copy of Jehovah’s law, and he was told (as rendered in many Bible versions) to “meditate” thereon day and night.
(Joshua 1:8) Kings of Israel were likewise told to make a copy of God’s Law and ‘read in it all the days of their life, in order that they might learn to fear Jehovah their God so as to keep all the words of his Law and these regulations by doing them.’