Deuteronomy 1:16

1:16 I furthermore admonished your judges at that time that they ¹  should pay attention to issues among your fellow citizens ²  and judge fairly, ³  whether between one citizen and another ⁴  or a citizen and a resident foreigner. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 16:18

Provision for Justice

16:18 You must appoint judges and civil servants ⁶  for each tribe in all your villages ⁷  that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 19:18

19:18 The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused, ⁹ 

Deuteronomy 21:2

21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. ¹⁰ 

Deuteronomy 25:2

25:2 Then, ¹¹  if the guilty person is sentenced to a beating, ¹²  the judge shall force him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of blows his wicked behavior deserves. ¹³ 

Deuteronomy 17:9

17:9 You will go to the Levitical priests and the judge in office in those days and seek a solution; they will render a verdict.

Deuteronomy 19:17

19:17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges ¹⁴  who will be in office in those days.

Deuteronomy 25:1

25:1 If controversy arises between people, ¹⁵  they should go to court for judgment. When the judges ¹⁶  hear the case, they shall exonerate ¹⁷  the innocent but condemn ¹⁸  the guilty.

Deuteronomy 17:12

17:12 The person who pays no attention ¹⁹  to the priest currently serving the Lord your God there, or to the verdict – that person must die, so that you may purge evil from Israel.

[1:16]  ¹ tn Or “you.” A number of English versions treat the remainder of this verse and v. 17 as direct discourse rather than indirect discourse (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[1:16]  ² tn Heb “brothers.” The term “brothers” could, in English, be understood to refer to siblings, so “fellow citizens” has been used in the translation.

[1:16]  ³ tn The Hebrew word צֶדֶק (tsedeq, “fairly”) carries the basic idea of conformity to a norm of expected behavior or character, one established by God himself. Fair judgment adheres strictly to that norm or standard (see D. Reimer, NIDOTTE 3:750).

[1:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “between a man and his brother.”

[1:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “his stranger” or “his sojourner”; NAB, NIV “an alien”; NRSV “resident alien.” The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger) commonly means “foreigner.”

[16:18]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “gates.”

[16:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”

[19:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his brother” (also in the following verse).

[21:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”

[25:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “and it will be.”

[25:2]  ²² tn Heb “if the evil one is a son of smiting.”

[25:2]  ²³ tn Heb “according to his wickedness, by number.”

[19:17]  ²⁶ tn The appositional construction (“before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges”) indicates that these human agents represented the Lord himself, that is, they stood in his place (cf. Deut 16:18-20; 17:8-9).

[25:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “men.”

[25:1]  ³² tn Heb “they”; the referent (the judges) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:1]  ³³ tn Heb “declare to be just”; KJV, NASB “justify the righteous”; NAB, NIV “acquitting the innocent.”

[25:1]  ³⁴ tn Heb “declare to be evil”; NIV “condemning the guilty (+ party NAB).”

[17:12]  ³⁶ tn Heb “who acts presumptuously not to listen” (cf. NASB).