Deuteronomy 21:18

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son,.... It is observed (w) that this law quickly follows, and is subjoined to that which relates to the marriage of a woman taken captive, because often from

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: If a man have

Deuteronomy 21:18-21. THE SON.(18) If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son.—Here we are again reminded that the Law of Jehovah was also the civil and criminal law of Israel. The systematic breach of the first commandment of the second table of the Law, no less than of the first commandment of the first table, entailed the penalty of death. Manifestly this enactment, if carried out, would be a great protection to the country against lawless and abandoned characters, and would rid it of one very large element in the dangerous classes. (20) Stubborn and rebellious.—The Hebrew words became proverbial as the worst form of reproach, sτrκr ϋ-mτreh. This word mτreh was the one employed by Moses, when, speaking “unadvisedly” (Numbers 20:10), he said to the people, “Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?” It appears in the Revised New Testament, in the margin of St. Matthew 5:22, for “thou fool.” But the Greek word there employed is true Greek, and has its own affinities in the New Testament. And the word mτreh is true Hebrew. They may be idiomatically synonymous. They are not etymologically identical. A glutton and a drunkard.—The same two words are found in Proverbs 23:20-22, “Be not among wine bibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Hearken unto thy father that begat thee; and despise not thy mother when she is old.” The context of this quotation seems to make it a distinct reference to the law in Deuteronomy 21 (21) Shall stone him with stones.—Rashi says that the Law cuts short the man’s career, anticipating what its close will be. When he has spent all his father’s money, he will take to the road, and become a public robber. It is better that he die innocent of such crimes than guilty. We can hardly adopt this view of the case; but it contains one feature that is terribly true.

Verse 18. - 21. The stubborn, rebellious, gluttonous, and drunken son is to be stoned to death. - This law, severe as it may seem, must have acted as a powerful preventive of crime. If such a law were in force now, and duly executed, how many deaths of disobedient and profligate children would there be in all corners of the land!

18–21. Of a Disobedient Son If a man have a son, who, in spite of his parents’ rebuke, fails to obey them (Deuteronomy 21:18), they shall bring him forth to the gate, and state the case to the elders of the town (Deuteronomy 21:19 f.), and the townsmen shall stone him to death, so shall evil be put out of Israel and all take warning (21).—Except for the closing formula this law is not in the form of address to Israel, and the term for stoning is other than D’s. Therefore probably another of the laws incorporated by D. The power of parents over their children (E, Exodus 21:7, Genesis 31:15), even to putting them to death, which prevailed in early Israel also to this degree (Genesis 38:24; cp. Buhl, Soc. Verkältn. d. Isr. 29), as among the Greeks and Romans, is here enforced and controlled by public authority. See further introd. to previous law. Cp. Deuteronomy 27:16; E, Exodus 21:15; Exodus 21:17, H, Leviticus 20:9 (death for smiting or cursing parents); Proverbs 30:17, Code of Ḫ ?ammurabi § 195, and two Sumerian laws cited by Johns, op. cit. p. 41. For Herod’s abuse of this law see Josephus, xvi. Antt. xi. 2.

The formal accusation of parents against a child was to be received without inquiry, as being its own proof.

THE OF AN SON, Deuteronomy 21:18-21. 18. A stubborn and rebellious son — The directions given are intended to assert and also limit the authority of the parents.