Deuteronomy 16:20

16:20 You must pursue justice alone ¹  so that you may live and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Deuteronomy 1:16

1:16 I furthermore admonished your judges at that time that they ²  should pay attention to issues among your fellow citizens ³  and judge fairly, ⁴  whether between one citizen and another ⁵  or a citizen and a resident foreigner. ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 16:18

Provision for Justice

16:18 You must appoint judges and civil servants ⁷  for each tribe in all your villages ⁸  that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. ⁹ 

Deuteronomy 33:19

33:19 They will summon peoples to the mountain,

there they will sacrifice proper ¹⁰  sacrifices;

for they will enjoy ¹¹  the abundance of the seas,

and the hidden treasures of the shores. ¹² 

[16:20]  ¹ tn Heb “justice, justice.” The repetition is emphatic; one might translate as “pure justice” or “unadulterated justice” (cf. NLT “true justice”).

[1:16]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “between a man and his brother.”

[1:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “his stranger” or “his sojourner”; NAB, NIV “an alien”; NRSV “resident alien.” The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger) commonly means “foreigner.”

[16:18]  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.

[16:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “gates.”

[16:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”

[33:19]  ⁴ tn Or “acceptable”; Heb “righteous” (so NASB).

[33:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “suck.”

[33:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “of the sand” (so NRSV, NLT); CEV “the sandy beach.”