Deuteronomy 20:9

20:9 Then, when the officers have finished speaking, ¹  they must appoint unit commanders ²  to lead the troops.

Deuteronomy 16:18

Provision for Justice

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 

Deuteronomy 29:10

29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, ⁶  your elders, your officials, every Israelite man,

Deuteronomy 31:28

31:28 Gather to me all your tribal elders and officials so I can speak to them directly about these things and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them.

Deuteronomy 1:15

1:15 So I chose ⁷  as your tribal leaders wise and well-known men, placing them over you as administrators of groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and also as other tribal officials.

Deuteronomy 20:5

20:5 Moreover, the officers are to say to the troops, ⁸  “Who among you ⁹  has built a new house and not dedicated ¹⁰  it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else ¹¹  dedicate it.

Deuteronomy 20:8

20:8 In addition, the officers are to say to the troops, “Who among you is afraid and fainthearted? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier’s ¹²  heart as fearful ¹³  as his own.”

¹ tn The Hebrew text includes “to the people,” but this phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

² tn Heb “princes of hosts.”

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.”

⁵ tc Heb “your heads, your tribes.” The Syriac presupposes either “heads of your tribes” or “your heads, your judges,” etc. (reading שֹׁפְטֵכֶם [shofÿtekhem] for שִׁבְטֵיכֶם [shivtekhem]). Its comparative difficulty favors the originality of the MT reading. Cf. KJV “your captains of your tribes”; NRSV “the leaders of your tribes”; NLT “your tribal leaders.”

⁷ tn Or “selected”; Heb “took.”

⁹ tn Heb “people” (also in vv. 8, 9).

¹⁰ tn Heb “Who [is] the man” (also in vv. 6, 7, 8).

¹¹ tn The Hebrew term חָנַךְ (khanakh) occurs elsewhere only with respect to the dedication of Solomon’s temple (1 Kgs 8:63 = 2 Chr 7:5). There it has a religious connotation which, indeed, may be the case here as well. The noun form (חָנֻכָּה, khanukah) is associated with the consecration of the great temple altar (2 Chr 7:9) and of the postexilic wall of Jerusalem (Neh 12:27). In Maccabean times the festival of Hanukkah was introduced to celebrate the rededication of the temple following its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (1 Macc 4:36-61).

¹² tn Heb “another man.”

¹¹ tn Heb “his brother’s.”

¹² tn Heb “melted.”