Deuteronomy 21:19

19 then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown.

Deuteronomy 21:19 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 21:19

Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him
With their own hands, or cause him to be apprehended by others, in which they were to agree, and which the Jews gather from hence;

``if (say they ^F25) the father is willing (to bring him to justice), and the mother not willing, if his father is not willing and the mother is willing, he is not reckoned a stubborn or rebellious son, until they both agree:''

and bring him out unto the elders of his city;
according to the Misnah {z}, the sanhedrim, or court of judicature, consisting of twenty three; for they say, that after he has been admonished and scourged by order of the bench of three, if he returns to his corrupt and wicked ways again, he is judged by the court of twenty three:

and unto the gate of his place;
or city, where the court sat; so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, to the gate of the sanhedrim of his place.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 8. sect. 4.
F26 Ibid.

Deuteronomy 21:19 In-Context

17 "But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

18 "If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them,

19 then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown.

20 "They shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.'

21 "Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "and to the gate of his place"