Deuteronomy 17:11

11 thou shalt follow the sentence of them; thou shalt not bow therefrom to the right side, either to the left.

Deuteronomy 17:11 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 17:11

According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach
thee
For they were not to make any new law, but to teach the law of God, and so far as their sense and opinion of things agreed with that law they were to be regarded:

and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt
do;
what were law and justice, what were fit and right to be done, according to the will of God, which they should declare unto them, that was carefully to be done by them:

thou shalt not decline from the sentence they shall show thee, to the
right hand nor to the left;
by setting up after, all their own judgments against theirs to whom they had applied for information and direction, which to have done would have been very insolent and affronting; they were not to depart from the determination they made of the case, on pretence of knowing better, nor even in any minute circumstance to deviate from it, but strictly and closely to keep unto it; though not to follow them so implicitly as to receive from them and embrace things the most absurd and unreasonable, as Jarchi suggests; who says, that their sense was to be abided by, even if they should say that the right hand is the left, and the left hand the right.

Deuteronomy 17:11 In-Context

9 and thou shalt come to the priests of the kin of Levi, and to the judge that is in that time, and thou shalt ask of them, which shall show to thee the truth of [the] doom. (and thou shalt come to the levitical priests, and to the judge then in office, and thou shalt ask them, and they shall tell thee the correct judgement and sentence.)
10 And thou shalt do, whatever thing they say, that be sovereigns in the place which the Lord choose (who be the rulers in the place which the Lord shall choose), and (who) teach thee by the law of the Lord;
11 thou shalt follow the sentence of them; thou shalt not bow therefrom to the right side, either to the left.
12 For that man shall die, that is proud, and will not obey to the behest of the priest, that ministereth in that time to thy Lord God, and to the sentence of the judge, and thou shalt do away evil from the midst of Israel; (And the person shall die, who is proud, and will not obey the decision of the priest, who ministereth at that time to the Lord thy God, or the sentence of the judge, and so thou shalt do away evil from the midst of Israel;)
13 and all the people shall hear, and dread, that no man from thenceforth swell with pride. (and all the people shall hear, and have fear, so that henceforth no one should swell with pride.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.