Deuteronomy 17:11

11 [And so] according to {the instruction of the law} that they teach you and according to the decisions that they say to you, you shall do; you shall not turn from the word that they tell you to the right or [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 then you shall go to the priests and the Levites and to the judge who will be [in office] in those days, and you shall enquire, and they shall announce to you {the verdict}.
10 "And {you shall carry out exactly the decision} that they announced to you from that place that Yahweh will choose, and {you shall diligently observe} according to all that they instruct you.
11 [And so] according to {the instruction of the law} that they teach you and according to the decisions that they say to you, you shall do; you shall not turn from the word that they tell you to the right or [to the] left.
12 And the man who treats with contempt [so as] not to listen to the priest [who] [is] standing to minister on behalf of Yahweh your God or to the judge, that man shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.
13 And all the people will hear and will be afraid, and they will not behave presumptuously again.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Literally "mouth of the law"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.