Precept pre'-sept: A commandment, an authoritative rule for action; in the Scriptures generally a divine injunction in which man's obligation is set forth (Latin praeceptum, from praecipere, "to instruct").
Four words are so rendered in the King James Version:
(1) mitswah, very frequently (168 times) translated "commandment," but 4 times "precept" (in the Revised Version (British and American) only Jeremiah 35:18, Daniel 9:5);
(2) from the same root is tsaw, or tsaw (Isaiah 28:10, Isaiah 28:13);
(3) piqqudhim, only in the Psalms (21 times in Psalms 119:1, e.g. verses 4,15,27; also the Revised Version (British and American) Psalms 19:8, Psalms 103:18, Psalms 111:7);
(4) in the New Testament, entole, generally in the King James Version translated "commandment" (68 times), but twice "precept" (Mark 10:5, Hebrews 9:19; in both cases the Revised Version (British and American) substitutes "commandment").
See COMMANDMENT.
D. Miall Edwards