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16 (A)Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord, your God, has commanded you, that you may have a long life and that you may prosper in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

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The Stubborn and Rebellious Son. 18 (A)If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not listen to his father or mother, and will not listen to them even though they discipline him,(B) 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders at the gate[a] of his home city, 20 where they shall say to the elders of the city, “This son of ours is a stubborn and rebellious fellow who will not listen to us; he is a glutton and a drunkard.”(C) 21 Then all his fellow citizens shall stone him to death. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 21:19 The gate: in the city walls. This open space served as the forum for the administration of justice. Cf. 22:15; 25:7; Ru 4:1, 2, 11; Is 29:21; Am 5:10, 12, 15.

12 [a](A)Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 20:12–17 The Decalogue falls into two parts: the preceding precepts refer to God, the following refer primarily to one’s fellow Israelites.

17 Whoever curses[a] father or mother shall be put to death.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 21:17 Curses: not merely an angrily uttered expletive at one’s parents, but a solemn juridical formula of justifiable retribution which was considered to be legally binding and guaranteed by God.

Anyone who curses father or mother shall be put to death;[a](A) and having cursed father or mother, such a one will bear the bloodguilt.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 20:9 Curses father or mother…put to death: this is more than a simple expletive uttered in anger against one’s parents. See note on Ex 21:17.
  2. 20:9–21 Bloodguilt: these penalties, beginning with cursing one’s parents, reflect the concerns of a patriarchal society that the breakdown of one’s relations with one’s parents can lead to the breakdown of all other familial relationships, resulting in the breakdown of society.