19:8 In Jerusalem Jehoshaphat appointed some Levites, priests, and Israelite family leaders to judge on behalf of the Lord 1 and to settle disputes among the residents of Jerusalem. 2
16:18 You must appoint judges and civil servants 3 for each tribe in all your villages 4 that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. 5 16:19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort 6 the words of the righteous. 7 16:20 You must pursue justice alone 8 so that you may live and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, 9 and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 13:2 So the person who resists such authority 10 resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will incur judgment 13:3 (for rulers cause no fear for good conduct but for bad). Do you desire not to fear authority? Do good and you will receive its commendation, 13:4 for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be in fear, for it does not bear the sword in vain. It is God’s servant to administer retribution on the wrongdoer. 13:5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath of the authorities 11 but also because of your conscience. 12
13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, 13 and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.
1 tn Heb “for the judgment of the
2 tc Heb “and to conduct a case [or “for controversy”], and they returned [to] Jerusalem.” Some emend וַיָּשֻׁבוּ (vayyashuvu, “and they returned”) to וַיֵּשְׁבוּ (vayyeshÿvu, “and they lived [in]”). The present translation assumes an emendation to יֹשְׁבֵי (yoshÿvey, “residents of”).
3 tn The Hebrew term וְשֹׁטְרִים (vÿshoterim), usually translated “officers” (KJV, NCV) or “officials” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), derives from the verb שֹׁטֵר (shoter, “to write”). The noun became generic for all types of public officials. Here, however, it may be appositionally epexegetical to “judges,” thus resulting in the phrase, “judges, that is, civil officers,” etc. Whoever the שֹׁטְרִים are, their task here consists of rendering judgments and administering justice.
4 tn Heb “gates.”
5 tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”
6 tn Heb “twist, overturn”; NRSV “subverts the cause.”
7 tn Or “innocent”; NRSV “those who are in the right”; NLT “the godly.”
8 tn Heb “justice, justice.” The repetition is emphatic; one might translate as “pure justice” or “unadulterated justice” (cf. NLT “true justice”).
9 tn Grk “by God.”
10 tn Grk “the authority,” referring to the authority just described.
11 tn Grk “its wrath”; the referent (the governing authorities) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Grk “because of (the) conscience,” but the English possessive “your” helps to show whose conscience the context implies.
13 tn Grk “by God.”
14 tn The Greek sentence expresses this contrast more succinctly than is possible in English. Grk “For not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be declared righteous.”
15 sn Gentile is a NT term for a non-Jew.
16 tn Some (e.g. C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:135-37) take the phrase φύσει (fusei, “by nature”) to go with the preceding “do not have the law,” thus: “the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature,” that is, by virtue of not being born Jewish.
17 tn Grk “do by nature the things of the law.”