Acommand; a mandate; an order or injunction given by authority; charge; precept. Why do ye transgress the commandment of God. Matthew 15:3. This is the first and great commandment. Matthew 22:38. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. John 13:34.

By way of eminence, a precept of the decalogue, or moral law, written on tables of stone, at Mount Sinai; one of the ten commandments. Exodus 34:28.

Authority; coercive power.