1 Kings 3:9

3:9 So give your servant a discerning mind ¹  so he can make judicial decisions for ²  your people and distinguish right from wrong. ³  Otherwise ⁴  no one is able ⁵  to make judicial decisions for ⁶  this great nation of yours.” ⁷ 

Job 12:17

12:17 He ⁸  leads ⁹  counselors away stripped ¹⁰ 

and makes judges ¹¹  into fools. ¹² 

Psalms 2:10

2:10 So now, you kings, do what is wise; ¹³ 

you rulers of the earth, submit to correction! ¹⁴ 

Psalms 148:11

148:11 you kings of the earth and all you nations,

you princes and all you leaders ¹⁵  on the earth,

Proverbs 8:16

8:16 by me princes rule,

as well as nobles and ¹⁶  all righteous judges. ¹⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “a hearing heart.” (The Hebrew term translated “heart” often refers to the mental faculties.)

² tn Heb “to judge.”

³ tn Heb “to understand between good and evil.”

⁴ tn Heb “for”; the word “otherwise” is used to reflect the logical sense of the statement.

⁵ tn Heb “who is able?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “no one.”

⁶ tn Heb “to judge.”

⁷ tn Heb “your numerous people.”

⁸ tn The personal pronoun normally present as the subject of the participle is frequently omitted (see GKC 381 §119.s).

⁹ tn GKC 361-62 §116.x notes that almost as a rule a participle beginning a sentence is continued with a finite verb with or without a ו (vav). Here the participle (“leads”) is followed by an imperfect (“makes fools”) after a ו (vav).

¹⁰ tn The word שׁוֹלָל (sholal), from the root שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder; to strip”), is an adjective expressing the state (and is in the singular, as if to say, “in the state of one naked” [GKC 375 §118.o]). The word is found in military contexts (see Mic 1:8). It refers to the carrying away of people in nakedness and shame by enemies who plunder (see also Isa 8:1-4). They will go away as slaves and captives, deprived of their outer garments. Some (cf. NAB) suggest “barefoot,” based on the LXX of Mic 1:8; but the meaning of that is uncertain. G. R. Driver wanted to derive the word from an Arabic root “to be mad; to be giddy,” forming a better parallel.

¹¹ sn The judges, like the counselors, are nobles in the cities. God may reverse their lot, either by captivity or by shame, and they cannot resist his power.

¹² tn Some translate this “makes mad” as in Isa 44:25, but this gives the wrong connotation today; more likely God shows them to be fools.

¹³ sn The speaker here is either the psalmist or the Davidic king, who now addresses the rebellious kings.

¹⁴ tn The Niphal has here a tolerative nuance; the kings are urged to submit themselves to the advice being offered.

¹⁵ tn Or “judges.”

¹⁶ tn The term “and” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and readability.

¹⁷ tc Many of the MT mss read “sovereigns [princes], all the judges of the earth.” The LXX has “sovereigns…rule the earth.” But the MT manuscript in the text has “judges of righteousness.” C. H. Toy suggests that the Hebrew here has assimilated Psalm 148:11 in its construction (Proverbs [ICC], 167). The expression “judges of the earth” is what one would expect, but the more difficult and unexpected reading, the one scribes might change, would be “judges of righteousness.” If that reading stands, then it would probably be interpreted as using an attributive genitive.