Deutéronome 21:18

If a man hath a son depraved and rebellious, who will not obey the word of his father or of his mother, and who, when they reprove him, will not receive admonition from them;

insubordinate and rebellious against God , and against his parents (if the latter be God-fearing people).

insubordinate as in “like a headstrong cow” [Hosea 4: 16], meaning he does not observe the positive commandments.

rebellious regarding the negative commandments.

they discipline him in front of witnesses. They are obliged to take hold him and bring him. The traditional explanation of this verse [that the law can apply only to someone who has both parents — Sifrey on this verse] is also true.

A STUBBORN AND REBELLIOUS SON. In the opinion of our Rabbis he is not a minor, for a minor is not subject to any punishments ordained by the Torah or to [the observance of] any commandments. Rather, this verse applies to a boy who has grown two hairs [signifying puberty, and, therefore making the child subject to all the laws prescribed by the Torah]. Now, he is liable to two punishments: the first, because he dishonors his father and his mother and rebels against them, and the second, because he is a glutton, and a drunkard, transgressing that which we have been commanded, Ye shall be holy, and it is further stated, and Him shall ye serve, and unto Him shall ye cleave — as I have explained,, 6:12. we are commanded to know G-d in all our ways, and a glutton, and a drunkard does not know the way of G-d. In general, then, as of now he [this stubborn and rebellious son] has not committed a sin punishable by death, but is judged because of [what he is destined to become in] the end, just as our Rabbis have mentioned. This is the sense of the expression, and all Israel shall hear, and fear, for he was not executed due to the greatness of his sin, but in order to discipline the public, and so that he not become a menace to others. It is the manner of Scripture so to warn that when the death-penalty is imposed as a deterrent, the execution should serve as a benefit to others. Thus it mentioned the same in the case of the rebellious elder [who defies the decision of the Great Sanhedrin — And all the people shall hear, and fear] because, in his decision [contradicting that of the court] there is no sin deserving of death, but [the death sentence being imposed only to] deter dissension from the Torah, as I have explained there., Verse 11. Similar is the case of plotting witnesses, 19:20: And those that remain shall hear, and fear. who are executed [for scheming to condemn someone to death] although they have not caused his execution., Verse 19. Scripture also mentions it in the case of the beguiler, 13:12: And all Israel shall hear, and fear. because he is executed merely for his evil speech even though the beguiled has not worshipped the idols, nor hearkened to him; his [the beguiler’s] death is rather to chasten the survivors. This, too, is a newly-declared commandment — or it may be explanatory of the commandments, Honor thy father and thy mother, and Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father.

מורה, obstinate, vexing. The word occurs in this sense in Lamentations 1,20 מרה, מריתי, “I kept disobeying.”

זולל וסובא, as in Proverbs 23,21 “guzzlers of wine and gluttons of meat.”

סורר ומורה, his obstinacy removed all hope that he would change his lifestyle.

כי יהיה לאיש בן סורר ומורה, “if a man has a wayward son, etc.” the death penalty decreed here for what must appear to the reader as a relatively minor sin by a teenager, is understood as the Torah’s way to save this son from losing his share in the world to come, if he were allowed to continue in his lifestyle. This is how Rashi explains it. If you were to ask that at least he should not have to face a harsher death penalty than that administered for armed robbery, which is death by the sword, not death by stoning, the Torah wrote that he ignored both father and mother, a euphemism for this son cursing father and mother, a crime which carries the penalty of death by stoning. (Compare Leviticus 20,9, where the wording of the Torah for cursing father or mother is: דמיו בו, “his blood will be upon him.” Whenever this expression occurs it refers to death by stoning.