23:2 “You must not follow a crowd 1 in doing evil things; 2 in a lawsuit you must not offer testimony that agrees with a crowd so as to pervert justice, 3
23:6 “You must not turn away justice for your poor people in their lawsuits.
9:9 He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, 6 for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ 7
1 tn The word רָבִּים (rabbim), here rendered “crowd,” is also used infrequently to refer to the “mighty,” people of importance in society (Job 35:9; cf. Lev 19:15).
2 tn For any individual to join a group that is bent on acting wickedly would be a violation of the Law and would incur personal responsibility.
3 tn Heb “you will not answer in a lawsuit to turn after the crowd to turn.” The form translated “agrees with” (Heb “to turn after”) is a Qal infinitive construct from נָטָה (natah); the same root is used at the end of the verse but as a Hiphil infinitive construct, “to pervert [justice].”
4 tn Heb “twist, overturn”; NRSV “subverts the cause.”
5 tn Or “innocent”; NRSV “those who are in the right”; NLT “the godly.”
6 tn Or “lawlessness” (NAB); “perversity” (NRSV). The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT, and its meaning is uncertain. The similar phrase in 7:23 has a common word for “violence.”
7 sn The saying is virtually identical to that of the elders in Ezek 8:12.