Deuteronomy 17:12

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;)

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, 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.)

14 When thou hast entered into the land, which thy Lord God shall give to thee, and wieldest it, and dwellest therein, and sayest, I shall ordain a king on me, as all nations by compass have (and sayest, We shall ordain a king over us, like all the nations around us have);