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
17:8 If a matter is too difficult for you to judge – bloodshed, 9 legal claim, 10 or assault 11 – matters of controversy in your villages 12 – you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. 13
32:36 The Lord will judge his people,
and will change his plans concerning 17 his servants;
when he sees that their power has disappeared,
and that no one is left, whether confined or set free.
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).
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.
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).
4 tn Heb “between a man and his brother.”
5 tn Heb “his stranger” or “his sojourner”; NAB, NIV “an alien”; NRSV “resident alien.” The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger) commonly means “foreigner.”
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.
7 tn Heb “gates.”
8 tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”
9 tn Heb “between blood and blood.”
10 tn Heb “between claim and claim.”
11 tn Heb “between blow and blow.”
12 tn Heb “gates.”
13 tc Several Greek recensions add “to place his name there,” thus completing the usual formula to describe the central sanctuary (cf. Deut 12:5, 11, 14, 18; 16:6). However, the context suggests that the local Levitical towns, and not the central sanctuary, are in mind.
14 tn Heb “and it will be.”
15 tn Heb “if the evil one is a son of smiting.”
16 tn Heb “according to his wickedness, by number.”
17 tn The translation understands the verb in the sense of “be grieved, relent” (cf. HALOT 689 s.v. נחם hitp 2); cf. KJV, ASV “repent himself”; NLT “will change his mind.” Another option is to translate “will show compassion to” (see BDB 637 s.v. נחם); cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV.