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 16:1

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ⁴  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ⁵  he ⁶  brought you out of Egypt by night.

Deuteronomy 21:8-14

21:8 Do not blame ⁷  your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” ⁸  Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed. 21:9 In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before ⁹  the Lord.

Laws Concerning Wives

21:10 When you go out to do battle with your enemies and the Lord your God allows you to prevail ¹⁰  and you take prisoners, 21:11 if you should see among them ¹¹  an attractive woman whom you wish to take as a wife, 21:12 you may bring her back to your house. She must shave her head, ¹²  trim her nails, 21:13 discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, ¹³  and stay ¹⁴  in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may have sexual relations ¹⁵  with her and become her husband and she your wife. 21:14 If you are not pleased with her, then you must let her go ¹⁶  where she pleases. You cannot in any case sell ¹⁷  her; ¹⁸  you must not take advantage of ¹⁹  her, since you have already humiliated ²⁰  her.

[16:18]  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.

[16:18]  ² tn Heb “gates.”

[16:18]  ³ tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”

[16:1]  ⁴ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[21:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “Atone for.”

[21:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “and do not place innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.”

[21:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “in the eyes of” (so ASV, NASB, NIV).

[21:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “gives him into your hands.”

[21:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the prisoners.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.

[21:12]  ¹² sn This requirement for the woman to shave her head may symbolize the putting away of the old life and customs in preparation for being numbered among the people of the Lord. The same is true for the two following requirements.

[21:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “she is to…remove the clothing of her captivity” (cf. NASB); NRSV “discard her captive’s garb.”

[21:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “sit”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “remain.”

[21:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “go unto,” a common Hebrew euphemism for sexual relations.

[21:14]  ¹⁶ sn Heb “send her off.” The Hebrew term שִׁלַּחְתָּה (shillakhtah) is a somewhat euphemistic way of referring to divorce, the matter clearly in view here (cf. Deut 22:19, 29; 24:1, 3; Jer 3:1; Mal 2:16). This passage does not have the matter of divorce as its principal objective, so it should not be understood as endorsing divorce generally. It merely makes the point that if grounds for divorce exist (see Deut 24:1-4), and then divorce ensues, the husband could in no way gain profit from it.

[21:14]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by the words “in any case.”

[21:14]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text includes “for money.” This phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:14]  ¹⁹ tn Or perhaps “must not enslave her” (cf. ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); Heb “[must not] be tyrannical over.”

[21:14]  ²⁰ sn You have humiliated her. Since divorce was considered rejection, the wife subjected to it would “lose face” in addition to the already humiliating event of having become a wife by force (21:11-13). Furthermore, the Hebrew verb translated “humiliated” here (עָנָה, ’anah), commonly used to speak of rape (cf. Gen 34:2; 2 Sam 13:12, 14, 22, 32; Judg 19:24), likely has sexual overtones as well. The woman may not be enslaved or abused after the divorce because it would be double humiliation (see also E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy [NAC], 291).