Deuteronomy 17:12

12 And any man who, in his pride, will not give ear to the priest whose place is there before the Lord your God, or to the judge, is to be put to death: you are to put away the evil from Israel.

Deuteronomy 17:12 Meaning and Commentary

Ver. 12 And the man that will do presumptuously
The judge of the country court that makes his application to that at Jerusalem for information and direction; if, after all, he is conceited in his own opinion, and rejects theirs, and is obstinate, and will not be guided and directed, but will take his own way, and pursue his own sense of things, and act according to that:

and will not hearken to the priest that standeth to minister there
before the Lord thy God;
the priests of the tribe of Levi, of whom the court generally consisted, ( Deuteronomy 17:9 ) , priest for priests; though some think the high priest is meant, to whom the character very well agrees; but he was not always at the head of the sanhedrim, nor indeed a member of it, unless he had the proper qualifications; see ( Deuteronomy 18:18 )

or unto the judge; or judges; (See Gill on Deuteronomy 17:9). L'Empereur ^F7 thinks, that the supreme senate, or grand sanhedrim, was twofold, according to the diversity of ecclesiastic and political matters; since where it treats of the supreme senators, or chief persons in the court, the priest is manifestly distinguished from the judge (i.e. priests or judges); now the man that has asked advice of them, and will not be directed by it, but takes his own way, this being so great a contempt of, and insult upon, the great senate of the nation:

even that man shall die;
and this was by strangling, for so the rebellious older, as such an one is called, was to die according to the Misnah ^F8; and it is said ^F9, that the death spoken of in the law absolutely (without specifying what kind of death) is strangling:

and thou shall put away the evil from Israel;
the evil man that is rebellious against the supreme legislature of the nation, and the evil of contumacy he is guilty of, deterring others from it by his death.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 In Misn. Middoth, c. 5. sect. 3.
F8 Sanhedrin, c. 10. sect. 2.
F9 Maimon. Issure Biah, c. 1. sect. 6.

Deuteronomy 17:12 In-Context

10 And you are to be guided by the decision they give in the place named by the Lord, and do whatever they say:

11 Acting in agreement with their teaching and the decision they give: not turning to one side or the other from the word they have given you.

12 And any man who, in his pride, will not give ear to the priest whose place is there before the Lord your God, or to the judge, is to be put to death: you are to put away the evil from Israel.

13 And all the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear and put away their pride.

14 When you have come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken it for a heritage and are living in it, if it is your desire to have a king over you, like the other nations round about you;