◄ Deuteronomy 17:2 ►
If a man or woman among you in one of the towns that the LORD your God gives you is found doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God by transgressing His covenant
Study Bible
If a man or woman among you
This phrase emphasizes the inclusivity of the law, applying equally to both genders. In the Hebrew context, the word for "man" is "ish" and for "woman" is "ishah," highlighting the individual responsibility before God. The law is not biased; it holds every member of the community accountable, reflecting the just nature of God who sees all equally.

in one of the towns
The Hebrew word for "towns" is "arei," which refers to the cities or settlements within the Promised Land. This phrase situates the law within the context of the Israelites' new life in Canaan. It underscores the importance of maintaining holiness and obedience in every part of the land that God has given them, reinforcing the idea that God's laws are to be observed everywhere, not just in sacred spaces.

that the LORD your God is giving you
This phrase is a reminder of the divine gift of the land. The Hebrew word "natan" means "to give," indicating that the land is a gracious gift from God, not something earned by the Israelites. This gift comes with the responsibility to live according to God's commandments, as a response to His generosity and covenantal faithfulness.

is discovered doing evil
The Hebrew word for "discovered" is "matsa," meaning to find or uncover. This implies that the evil act is not hidden from God, who sees all things. The term "evil" is "ra," which encompasses actions that are morally wrong or harmful. This highlights the seriousness of sin and the need for vigilance within the community to uphold God's standards.

in the sight of the LORD your God
This phrase underscores the omnipresence and omniscience of God. The Hebrew word "ayin" means "eye," suggesting that nothing escapes God's notice. It serves as a sobering reminder that all actions are ultimately accountable to God, who is the ultimate judge of right and wrong.

and violating His covenant
The Hebrew word for "violating" is "abar," which means to transgress or pass over. The "covenant" (Hebrew "berit") refers to the solemn agreement between God and Israel, established at Sinai. Violating the covenant is not just a legal infraction but a breach of a sacred relationship. This phrase calls the community to remember their identity as God's chosen people and the importance of faithfulness to His commands.

Persons / Places / Events
1. The Israelites
The covenant people of God, to whom the laws and commandments were given.

2. The LORD (Yahweh)
The covenant God of Israel, who established the laws and commandments for His people.

3. The Towns
The specific locations within the Promised Land that God was giving to the Israelites.

4. Transgression of the Covenant
The act of breaking the agreement between God and His people, which was established through the Law.

5. Evil in the Sight of the LORD
Actions that are contrary to God's commandments and character.
Teaching Points
The Seriousness of Covenant Faithfulness
God takes His covenant with His people seriously, and transgressing it is considered evil in His sight. Believers today are called to uphold their commitment to God through obedience and faithfulness.

Community Responsibility
The passage highlights the communal aspect of faith. The community is responsible for addressing sin within its midst to maintain holiness and purity.

The Nature of Sin
Sin is not just a personal failing but an offense against God. Understanding sin in this light should lead to a deeper repentance and desire for holiness.

God's Provision and Expectation
God provided the towns and the land to the Israelites, expecting them to live according to His laws. Similarly, God provides for us and expects us to live in a way that honors Him.

The Role of Accountability
Accountability within the community of believers is crucial. We are called to lovingly confront and restore those who have strayed from God's commandments.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding the covenant relationship between God and the Israelites help us comprehend our relationship with God today?

2. In what ways can we ensure that we are not transgressing God's covenant in our daily lives?

3. How can the community of believers effectively address sin while maintaining love and grace?

4. What are some modern-day "towns" or areas of life where we might be tempted to transgress God's covenant?

5. How can we apply the lessons from Deuteronomy 17:2 to foster accountability and holiness within our church communities?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Exodus 20
The Ten Commandments, which outline the covenantal laws that the Israelites were to follow.

Leviticus 26
Describes the blessings for obedience and the consequences of breaking the covenant.

Joshua 7
The account of Achan, who transgressed the covenant by taking forbidden items, leading to Israel's defeat at Ai.

1 Kings 11
Solomon's transgressions by worshiping other gods, illustrating the consequences of covenant unfaithfulness.

Hebrews 10
Discusses the seriousness of willful sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, relating to covenant transgression.
Sermons
Idolatry a Capital CrimeR.M. Edgar Deuteronomy 17:1-7
SabaeismJ. Orr Deuteronomy 17:2, 3
Idolatry a Crime Against SocietyD. Davies Deuteronomy 17:2-7
People
Levites, Moses
Places
Beth-baal-peor, Egypt
Topics
Agreement, Cities, Covenant, Evil, Gates, Gives, Giveth, Giving, Midst, Sight, Sinning, Towns, Transgressing, Violation, Wickedness, Within, Wrought
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Deuteronomy 17:2-5

     1461   truth, nature of
     4284   sun
     4366   stones

Deuteronomy 17:2-7

     5201   accusation
     5557   stoning
     5623   witnesses, legal
     6126   condemnation, human
     8831   syncretism

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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