Ulangan 1:15-17

1:15 So I chose ¹  as your tribal leaders wise and well-known men, placing them over you as administrators of groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and also as other tribal officials. 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  1:17 They ⁷  must not discriminate in judgment, but hear the lowly ⁸  and the great alike. Nor should they be intimidated by human beings, for judgment belongs to God. If the matter being adjudicated is too difficult for them, they should bring it before me for a hearing.

Ulangan 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.

Ulangan 17:12

17:12 The person who pays no attention ⁹  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.

Ulangan 19:17-18

19:17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges ¹⁰  who will be in office in those days. 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, ¹¹ 

Ulangan 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. ¹² 

[1:15]  ¹ tn Or “selected”; Heb “took.”

[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.”

[1:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “you,” and throughout the verse (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[1:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “the small,” but referring to social status, not physical stature.

[17:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “who acts presumptuously not to listen” (cf. NASB).

[19:17]  ¹⁰ 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).

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

[21:2]  ¹² tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”