Deuteronomy 21:18-21

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 stoningis 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 Ḫammurabi § 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.