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Provision for Justice

18 You must appoint judges and civil servants[a] for each tribe in all your villages[b] that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly.[c] 19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort[d] the words of the righteous.[e] 20 You must pursue justice alone[f] so that you may live and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 16:18 tn The Hebrew term וְשֹׁטְרִים (veshoterim), 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. Deuteronomy 16:18 tn Heb “gates.”
  3. Deuteronomy 16:18 tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”
  4. Deuteronomy 16:19 tn Heb “twist, overturn”; NRSV “subverts the cause.”
  5. Deuteronomy 16:19 tn Or “innocent”; NRSV “those who are in the right”; NLT “the godly.”
  6. Deuteronomy 16:20 tn Heb “justice, justice.” The repetition is emphatic; one might translate as “pure justice” or “unadulterated justice” (cf. NLT “true justice”).

18 Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, according to thy tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 Thou shalt not wrest justice: thou shalt not respect persons; neither shalt thou take a bribe; for a bribe doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the [a]words of the righteous. 20 [b]That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 16:19 Or, cause
  2. Deuteronomy 16:20 Hebrew Justice, justice.