Deuteronomy 17:12

12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken to the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or to the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt remove 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 thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall show thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:

11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee, [to] the right hand, nor [to] the left.

12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken to the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or to the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt remove the evil from Israel.

13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

14 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell in it, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that [are] about me;