Deuteronomy 16:17-19

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Deuteronomy 16:17 tn Heb “a man must give according to the gift of his hand.” This has been translated as second person for stylistic reasons, in keeping with the second half of the verse, which is second person rather than third.
2. Deuteronomy 16:18 tn The Hebrew term וְשֹׁטְרִים (v^eshot^erim), 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.
3. Deuteronomy 16:18 tn Heb “gates.”
4. Deuteronomy 16:18 tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”
5. Deuteronomy 16:19 tn Heb “twist, overturn”; NRSV “subverts the cause.”
6. Deuteronomy 16:19 tn Or “innocent”; NRSV “those who are in the right”; NLT “the godly.”