Deuteronomy 17:8-13

Of the Judges of Final Appeal

Local cases too hard for the local courts (see Deuteronomy 16:18-20, on which this passage immediately follows) are to be taken before the Priests, the Levites at the Sanctuary, and the Judge of the time (Deuteronomy 17:8 f.), whose decisions must be strictly obeyed (Deuteronomy 17:10 f.); the man who presumptuously refuses to obey shall die (Deuteronomy 17:12 f.). Sg. address. The association of a lay judge with the priests is remarkable. Because of this and because he regards Deuteronomy 17:8 band Deuteronomy 17:9 aas doublets and Deuteronomy 17:10 and Deuteronomy 17:11 as another pair of doublets, Steuern. analyses the passage into two originally distinct laws (with editorial additions), one constituting the Priests of the Altar a court of appeal, the other recognising the Judge (i.e. the King) as the final authority. But Deuteronomy 17:8 band Deuteronomy 17:9 aare not doublets, and although Deuteronomy 17:10 and Deuteronomy 17:11 are redundant it is impossible to discriminate in them two distinct sources. More probably the passage is intended to sanction the double practice prevailing in Israel from the earliest times, and during the monarchy, of the discharge of justice by both the priestly and the civil heads of the people. How the authority was divided is nowhere stated except in 2 Chronicles 19:8-11, which attributes to King Jehoshaphat (873 849) the institution of a double court consisting of Levites, priests, and heads of families. Over this the chief priest was set in all the matters of Jehovah, and a prince was set over it in all the King's matters. But it is uncertain whether the passage merely reflects the procedure of justice in the Chronicler's own day or is a genuine memory of that which prevailed under the monarchy. See the present writer's Jerusalem, i. 379 n., 387 f.