Deuteronomy 5:23

5:23 Then, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness while the mountain was ablaze, all your tribal leaders and elders approached me.

Deuteronomy 16:18

Provision for Justice

16:18 You must appoint judges and civil servants ¹  for each tribe in all your villages ²  that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. ³ 

Deuteronomy 29:10

29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, ⁴  your elders, your officials, every Israelite man,

¹ 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.

² tn Heb “gates.”

³ tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”

¹ 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.”