They shall take him and bring him to the ancients of his city, and to the gate of judgment,

then laid hold on him have his father and his mother, and they have brought him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place,

Then let his father and mother take him to the responsible men of the town, to the public place;

they shall take him and lead him to the elders of the city and to the gate of judgment.

Tum apprehendent cum pater eius et mater eius, educentque ad seniores urbis suae et portam loci sui:

Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him,.... With their own hands, or cause him to be apprehended by others, in which they were to agree, and which the Jews gather from hence;"if (say they (y)) the father is willing (to bring him to justice), and the mother not willing, if his father is not willing and the mother is willing, he is not reckoned a stubborn or rebellious son, until they both agree:"
and bring him out unto the elders of his city; according to the Misnah (z), the sanhedrim, or court of judicature, consisting of twenty three; for they say, that after he has been admonished and scourged by order of the bench of three, if he returns to his corrupt and wicked ways again, he is judged by the court of twenty three:
and unto the gate of his place; or city, where the court sat; so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, to the gate of the sanhedrim of his place.
(y) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 8. sect. 4. (z) Ibid.

His father and mother - The consent of both is required to prevent the abuse of this law to cruelty. And it cannot reasonably be supposed that both would agree without the son's abominable and incorrigible wickedness, in which case it seems a righteous law, because the crime of rebellion against his own parents did so fully signify what a pernicious member he would be in the commonwealth of Israel, who had dissolved all his natural obligations. Unto the elders - Which was a sufficient caution to preserve children from the malice of any hard - hearted parents, because these elders were first to examine the cause with all exactness, and then to pronounce the sentence.