that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn away from the commandment to the right hand, or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the middle of Israel.
Parallel Translations
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that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn away from the commandment to the right hand, or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the middle of Israel.
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That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.
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that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left; to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.
Cross-references (34)
Passages linked to Deuteronomy 17:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 5:32 You shall observe to do therefore as Yahweh your God has commanded you. You shall not turn away to the right hand or to the left.
- 1 Kings 15:5 because David did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, and didn’t turn away from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
- Psalms 131:1-2 Yahweh, my heart isn’t arrogant, nor my eyes lofty; nor do I concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me. Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
- Isaiah 2:12 For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and arrogant, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:
- Daniel 5:20-23 But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. He was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the animals’, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of the sky; until he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and that he sets up over it whomever he will. “You, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, or hear, or know; and you have not glorified the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways.
- Deuteronomy 4:2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you.
- Deuteronomy 8:2 You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
- Deuteronomy 8:13-14 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;
- Deuteronomy 12:25 You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes.
- Deuteronomy 12:28 Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.
- Deuteronomy 12:32 Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.
- Deuteronomy 17:11 According to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn away from the sentence which they announce to you, to the right hand, nor to the left.
- 1 Samuel 13:13-14 Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you; for now Yahweh would have established your kingdom on Israel forever. But now your kingdom will not continue. Yahweh has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and Yahweh has appointed him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept that which Yahweh commanded you.”
- 1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected Yahweh’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.”
- 1 Kings 11:12-13 Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days, for David your father’s sake; but I will tear it out of your son’s hand. However I will not tear away all the kingdom; but I will give one tribe to your son, for David my servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.”
- 1 Kings 11:34 “ ‘However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him prince all the days of his life, for David my servant’s sake whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes;
- 1 Kings 11:36 I will give one tribe to his son, that David my servant may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself to put my name there.
- 2 Kings 10:30 Yahweh said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in executing that which is right in my eyes, and have done to Ahab’s house according to all that was in my heart, your descendants shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”
- 2 Kings 14:10 You have indeed struck Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Enjoy the glory of it, and stay at home; for why should you meddle to your harm, that you fall, even you, and Judah with you?’ ”
- 2 Chronicles 25:19 You say to yourself that you have struck Edom; and your heart lifts you up to boast. Now stay at home. Why should you meddle with trouble, that you should fall, even you, and Judah with you?’ ”
- 2 Chronicles 26:16 But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into Yahweh’s temple to burn incense on the altar of incense.
- 2 Chronicles 32:25-26 But Hezekiah didn’t reciprocate appropriate to the benefit done for him, because his heart was lifted up. Therefore there was wrath on him, and on Judah and Jerusalem. Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that Yahweh’s wrath didn’t come on them in the days of Hezekiah.
- 2 Chronicles 33:12 When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
- 2 Chronicles 33:19 His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up the Asherah poles and the engraved images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.
- 2 Chronicles 33:23 He didn’t humble himself before Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed more and more.
- 2 Chronicles 34:27 because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place, and against its inhabitants, and have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me, I also have heard you,” says Yahweh.
- Psalms 19:11 Moreover your servant is warned by them. In keeping them there is great reward.
- Psalms 132:12 If your children will keep my covenant, my testimony that I will teach them, their children also will sit on your throne forever more.”
- Proverbs 10:27 The fear of Yahweh prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.
- Proverbs 27:24 for riches are not forever, nor does the crown endure to all generations.
- Ecclesiastes 8:13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow, because he doesn’t fear God.
- Habakkuk 2:4 Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.
- 2 Corinthians 12:7 By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, a thorn in the flesh was given to me: a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively.
- 1 Peter 5:5 Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another; for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Whereby is meant, that Kings ought so to love…
Whereby is meant, that Kings ought so to love their subjects as nature bindeth one brother to love another.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 17:20 That his heart be not lifted up…
Deu 17:20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, [to] the right hand, or [to] the left: to the end that he may prolong [his] days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.
Ver. 20. That his heart be not lifted up.] That his good and his blood rise not together as that king of Tyre’s did, {Eze 28:2} and that Lucifer, son of the morning. {Isa 14:12-13} See my "Commonplace of Arrogancy." Of Caligula it is said, that there never was a better servant, or a worse lord. Vespasian is said to be the only man that became better by the empire. The most of the emperors grew so insolent, that they got nothing by their preferment, nisi ut citius interficerentur, but to be sooner slain.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain That his heart be not lifted up; he intimates,…
That his heart be not lifted up; he intimates, that the Scriptures, diligently read and studied, are a powerful and probable means to keep him humble, because they show him that, though a king, he is subject to a higher Monarch, to whom he must give an account of all his administrations and actions, and receive from him his sentence and doom agreeable to their quality, which is sufficient to abate the pride of the haughtiest person in the world, if he duly consider it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain That his heart be not lifted up above his…
That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren,.... On account of his office, the dignity of it, considering that he was subject to the law of God, and accountable to the Lord for all his actions:
and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left; not in the least deviate from the law of God in the whole of his conduct, and particularly in the exercise of his kingly office:
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to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom; ruling well according to the laws of God being the way to rule long:
he and his children in the midst of Israel; this shows, as Jarchi observes, that if his son was fit for the kingdom, he was to be preferred to any other man; for though it was elective, yet to be continued in the same family, provided they walked in the ways of the Lord, and observed his laws.
Next: Deuteronomy Chapter 18
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain If his heart be not lifted up - He…
If his heart be not lifted up - He intimates, that the scriptures diligently read, are a powerful means to keep him humble, because they shew him in that, tho' a king, he is subject to an higher monarch, to whom he must give an account of all his administrations, and receive from him his sentence agreeable to their quality, which is sufficient to abate the pride of the haughtiest person in the world.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. He, and his children, in the midst…
Verse 20. He, and his children, in the midst of Israel.] From this verse it has been inferred that the crown of Israel was designed to be hereditary, and this is very probable; for long experience has proved to almost all the nations of the world that hereditary succession in the regal government is, on the whole, the safest, and best calculated to secure the public tranquillity.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Deu 17:20. That his heart be not lifted up…
Deu 17:20. That his heart be not lifted up — He intimates, that the Scriptures, diligently read, are a powerful means to keep a person humble, because they show him that, though a king, he is subject to a higher monarch, to whom he must give an account of all his administrations, and receive from him his sentence, agreeably to their quality, which is sufficient to abate the pride of the haughtiest person in the world.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain With pride. This is not expressed in Hebrew, but…
With pride. This is not expressed in Hebrew, but it is clearly (Haydock) implied. Humility is the most difficult virtue for a prince to practice, amid the flattery of his courtiers, and the splendour with which he is environed. See St. Augustine, City of God v. 24. (Calmet) --- His sons. Wicked kings seldom left a quiet possession of the throne to their heirs. (Menochius) --- David and his posterity reigned in succession, by an effect of the divine bounty. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain that he may prolong his days in his kingdom,…
that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children--From this it appears that the crown in Israel was to be hereditary, unless forfeited by personal crime.
Next: Deuteronomy Chapter 18
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 20. that his heart, etc.] Cp. Deu_8:2. Turn not…
20. that his heart, etc.] Cp. Deu_8:2. Turn not aside, Deu_5:32, Prolong days, Deu_4:40. Cullen (140) thinks that in mentioning Torah and Miṣwah separately in Deu_17:19-20 the writer refers to two distinct works. This is by no means clear; he may be using them here as parallel terms.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (20) To the end that he may prolong his…
(20) To the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children.—Shows that the kingdom in Israel would be hereditary only so far as Jehovah willed it to be so. Again we may say that the striking fact that no dynasty except that of David ever continued for more than five generations, and only two dynasties for more than two generations, while David’s dynasty was perpetual by promise, could hardly have escaped notice, if known to the writer of this book.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain That his heart be not lifted up above his…
That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren. "Not imagining himself to be above all laws, nor slighting his subjects, as unworthy of his notice, but taking a due care to promote their happiness" (Patrick). He, and his children; properly, his sons (wynb). The legislator anticipated not an elective monarchy, but one hereditary in the same family (cf. Michaelis, "Laws of Moses," pt. 1.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 so that his heart is not lifted up above…
so that his heart is not lifted up above his brothers
Here "his heart" refers to the whole person. A king becoming arrogant is spoken of as if his heart were lifted up. AT: "so that he does not become arrogant" or "so that he does not think he is better than his fellow Israelites" (See: Synecdoche and Metaphor)
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so that he does not turn away from the commandments, to the right hand or to the left
A king disobeying God's commands is spoken of as if a person were to turn off the correct path. This can be stated in positive form. AT: "so that he does not disobey any of the commandments" or "so that he obeys all of the commandments" (See: Metaphor and Litotes)
prolong his days
Long days is a metaphor for a long life. See how you translated a similar phrase "prolong your days" in Deuteronomy 4:26. AT: "be able to live a long time" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
heart
brother
command
Israel
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.