Deuteronomy 16:18-20

II. Second Division of the Laws: the Officers of the Theocracy Deuteronomy 16:18-20 … Deuteronomy 17:8-18

Five Laws on Judges and Justice, Appeal to the Sanctuary, the King, the Priests, the Prophets; interrupted by an isolated group of laws on the Worship, Deuteronomy 16:21 to Deuteronomy 17:7.

Deuteronomy 16:18-20. Of Judges and Justice

Judges with officers are to be appointed in every locality but according to tribes. Justice is to be pursued with strict impartiality. Sg. Steuern. regards Deuteronomy 16:18 alone as original on the grounds that while it commits the discharge of justice to special Judges, vv. Deuteronomy 16:19 f. addresses the whole people as responsible for it; and that while Deuteronomy 16:18 presupposes Israel's occupation of the land, Deuteronomy 16:20 b promises this as the reward of the people's justice. But the former variation, though a possible, is not a certain, mark of diversity of authorship. The same author, after instituting the judges, might well address to the whole people his enforcement of the principles which were to inspire the institution, especially since (as we shall see) he left to the popular courts part of the duty of discharging justice. Deuteronomy 16:20 b, a couple of deuteronomic formulas, may well be a later scribe's malaproposaddition to the original law. There is no reason for doubting the integrity of the rest. Deuteronomy 16:19 is a close, but not exact, quotation from E. On the substance of this law see notes to Deuteronomy 1:9-18.