◄ Deuteronomy 17:11 ►
according to the terms of law they give and the verdict they proclaim. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from the decision they declare to you.
Study Bible
According to the terms of the law they teach you
This phrase emphasizes the importance of adhering to the established laws as taught by the Levitical priests and judges. The Hebrew word for "law" here is "Torah," which signifies instruction or teaching. In the historical context, the Torah was not just a set of rules but a comprehensive guide for living a life pleasing to God. The phrase underscores the divine authority vested in the religious leaders to interpret and teach God's commandments, ensuring that the community remains aligned with God's will.

and according to the judgment they tell you
The word "judgment" in Hebrew is "mishpat," which refers to a decision or verdict rendered by the judges. This highlights the role of the judiciary in ancient Israel as an extension of God's justice. The historical context reveals a society where legal decisions were not merely human opinions but were seen as divinely guided resolutions. This phrase calls for respect and obedience to the judicial process, recognizing it as a means through which God’s justice is administered.

you must do
This imperative underscores the necessity of action in response to the teachings and judgments received. The Hebrew verb "asah" (to do) implies not just passive acceptance but active implementation. In a conservative Christian perspective, this reflects the call to live out one's faith through obedience, demonstrating that true belief is evidenced by actions that align with God's commands.

do not turn aside to the right or to the left
This phrase uses directional metaphors to emphasize steadfastness and fidelity to God's commands. In the ancient Near Eastern context, turning to the right or left symbolized deviation or straying from the path of righteousness. The imagery here is powerful, suggesting that any deviation, however slight, can lead one away from God's intended path. For conservative Christians, this serves as a reminder to remain unwavering in faith and practice, avoiding the distractions and temptations that lead away from God's truth.

from the verdict they declare to you
The term "verdict" in Hebrew is "dabar," which can also mean word or matter. This indicates that the decisions made by the judges are not just legal pronouncements but carry the weight of divine communication. The historical context shows that these verdicts were integral to maintaining social order and covenantal faithfulness. For believers, this phrase reinforces the importance of heeding godly counsel and recognizing the authority of those appointed to lead and guide in accordance with God's word.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Moses
The author of Deuteronomy, who is delivering God's laws to the Israelites.

2. Israelites
The chosen people of God, receiving instructions on how to live according to God's laws.

3. Judges and Priests
Appointed leaders responsible for interpreting and teaching the law to the people.

4. Promised Land
The land of Canaan, where the Israelites are headed and where these laws will be applied.

5. God's Law
The divine instructions given to guide the moral, civil, and ceremonial life of Israel.
Teaching Points
Authority of Scripture
The verse underscores the importance of adhering to God's law as taught by appointed leaders. This highlights the authority of Scripture in guiding our lives.

Obedience and Faithfulness
The command to not turn aside to the right or left emphasizes the need for steadfast obedience and faithfulness to God's instructions.

Role of Leaders
The passage highlights the responsibility of spiritual leaders to teach and interpret God's law accurately, reminding us of the importance of sound doctrine.

Community Accountability
The Israelites were to hold each other accountable to the law, reflecting the importance of community in spiritual growth and obedience.

Application in Modern Life
Just as the Israelites were to follow the law, Christians today are called to live according to the teachings of the Bible, applying its principles in daily life.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the role of judges and priests in Deuteronomy 17:11 compare to the role of church leaders today?

2. In what ways can we ensure that we are not turning "to the right or to the left" in our obedience to God's Word?

3. How does the concept of community accountability in ancient Israel apply to the church today?

4. What are some practical steps we can take to ensure that we are doers of the Word, as encouraged in James 1:22-25?

5. How can we discern and uphold the authority of Scripture in a world with many competing voices and interpretations?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Exodus 18
This chapter describes the appointment of judges to help Moses govern the people, establishing a system of justice.

Joshua 1:7
Joshua is commanded to follow the law without turning to the right or left, emphasizing obedience.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
Highlights the importance of Scripture for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.

Matthew 23:2-3
Jesus acknowledges the authority of the teachers of the law, instructing people to follow their teachings but not their actions.

James 1:22-25
Encourages believers to be doers of the word, not just hearers, aligning with the call to obedience in Deuteronomy.
Sermons
High Court of AppealD. Davies Deuteronomy 17:8-13
The Priest and the JudgeJ. Orr Deuteronomy 17:8-13
The Ruling -Power of the Priests in the Jewish ChurchR.M. Edgar Deuteronomy 17:8-13
People
Levites, Moses
Places
Beth-baal-peor, Egypt
Topics
Acting, Agreement, Aside, Decision, Decisions, Declare, Decline, Direct, Either, Instructions, Judgment, Law, Pronounce, Sentence, Teach, Teaching, Tenor, Terms, Turn, Turning, Verdict
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Deuteronomy 17:8-13

     5025   killing
     5383   lawsuits

Deuteronomy 17:11-12

     8245   ethics, incentives

Library
Bethphage
There is very frequent mention of this place in the Talmudists: and, certainly, a more careful comparison of the maps with those things which are said by them of the situation of this place is worthy to be made; when they place it in mount Olivet, these make it contiguous to the buildings of Jerusalem. I. In the place cited in the margin, the case "of a stubborn judge" (or elder) is handling. For when, by the prescript of the law, difficult matters, and such things as concerning which the lower councils …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Reign of Saul.
I Sam. 8-31; I Chron. 10 The Demand for a King. The last period saw one tribe after another come to the front and assert itself through some leading man as an emergency arose, but now the tribes are to be united into a monarchy and this, too, at their own request made in the form of a desire for a king. Several things no doubt influenced them to make this request. (1) From the days of Joshua there had been no strong national bond. They were only held together by the law of Moses and the annual assemblages …
Josiah Blake Tidwell—The Bible Period by Period

'Make us a King'
'Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel, onto Ramah, 5. And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. 6. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. 7. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Adonijah
BY REV. ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B. It is notorious that the sons of devout men sometimes prove a curse to their parents, and bring dishonour on the cause of God. When Eve rejoiced over her first-born, she little suspected that passions were sleeping within him which would impel him to slay his own brother; and the experience of the first mother has been repeated, though in different forms, in all lands and in all ages. Isaac's heart was rent by the deceit of Jacob, and by the self-will of Esau. …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

Jehoiada and Joash
'And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 2. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 3. And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. 4. And the seventh year Jehoiada …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Bible in the Days of Jesus Christ
[Illustration: (drop cap S) Reading from a Roll--old Roman Painting] Slowly but surely, as time went on, God was adding to His Book, until about four hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ the Old Testament Scriptures, in their present shape, were completed. Many questions have been asked as to how the canon of the Old Testament was formed--that is, how and when did the Jews first begin to understand that the Books of the Old Testament were inspired by God. About the first five Books--the …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."--2 Kings …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

The Story of the Adulteress.
(Jerusalem.) ^D John VII. 53-VIII. 11. [This section is wanting in nearly all older manuscripts, but Jerome (a.d. 346-420) says that in his time it was contained in "many Greek and Latin manuscripts," and these must have been as good or better than the best manuscripts we now possess. But whether we regard it as part of John's narrative or not, scholars very generally accept it as a genuine piece of history.] ^d 53 And they went every man unto his own house [confused by the question of Nicodemus, …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Golden Eagle is Cut to Pieces. Herod's Barbarity when He was Ready to Die. He Attempts to Kill Himself. He Commands Antipater to be Slain.
1. Now Herod's distemper became more and more severe to him, and this because these his disorders fell upon him in his old age, and when he was in a melancholy condition; for he was already seventy years of age, and had been brought by the calamities that happened to him about his children, whereby he had no pleasure in life, even when he was in health; the grief also that Antipater was still alive aggravated his disease, whom he resolved to put to death now not at random, but as soon as he should …
Flavius Josephus—The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem

A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox.
[In the Prospectus of our Publication it was stated, that one discourse, at least, would be given in each number. A strict adherence to this arrangement, however, it is found, would exclude from our pages some of the most talented discourses of our early Divines; and it is therefore deemed expedient to depart from it as occasion may require. The following Sermon will occupy two numbers, and we hope, that from its intrinsic value, its historical interest, and the illustrious name of its author, it …
John Knox—The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements.
If a faithful picture of society in ancient Greece or Rome were to be presented to view, it is not easy to believe that even they who now most oppose the Bible could wish their aims success. For this, at any rate, may be asserted, without fear of gainsaying, that no other religion than that of the Bible has proved competent to control an advanced, or even an advancing, state of civilisation. Every other bound has been successively passed and submerged by the rising tide; how deep only the student …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Second Stage of Jewish Trial. Jesus Condemned by Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin.
(Palace of Caiaphas. Friday.) ^A Matt. XXVI. 57, 59-68; ^B Mark XIV. 53, 55-65; ^C Luke XXII. 54, 63-65; ^D John XVIII. 24. ^d 24 Annas therefore sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest. [Foiled in his attempted examination of Jesus, Annas sends him to trial.] ^b and there come together with him all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. ^a 57 And they that had taken Jesus led him away to the house of Caiaphas the high priest, ^c and brought him into the high priest's house. ^a where …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Easter Tuesday
Second Sermon. Same Text. Acts 13, 26-39. THE WORD AND THE RESURRECTION.[1] [Footnote 1: This sermon appeared first in the Church Postil, the Explanation of the Epistle and Gospel Texts from Easter to Advent. Printed by Hans Lufft, Wittenberg, 1559.] 1. This sermon was preached by Paul in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia, where were gathered with the Jews some Greek converts. Wherever in a city Jews were to be found, there also were their synagogues in which they taught and preached; and many …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Medes and the Second Chaldaean Empire
THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDAEAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES--THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY: CYAXARES, ALYATTES, AND NEBUCHADREZZAR. The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact of the Medes with the Assyrians: the alleged Iranian migrations of the Avesta--Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginning of the Median empire--Persia proper and the Persians; conquest of Persia by the Medes--The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal: the library of Kouyunjik--Phraortes …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf. …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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