“Suppose a case arises in a local court that is too hard for you to decide—for instance, whether someone is guilty of murder or only of manslaughter, or a difficult lawsuit, or a case involving different kinds of assault. Take such legal cases to the place the Lord your God will choose,
Parallel translations
- WEB If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then you shall arise, and go up to the place which Yahweh your God chooses.
- KJV If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;
- BSB If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the LORD your God will choose.
- NKJV “If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God chooses.
- NASB “If a case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, that are cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God chooses.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Cases too difficult for local judges were to be taken to God's chosen place. God provided a higher court for hard matters.
Overview
When disputes over bloodshed, legal rights, or assault proved too complex for local courts, they were referred to the central sanctuary. This established a system of appeal grounded in God's presence. It reflects God's care that justice be done rightly even in hard cases, and points to the perfect judgment found in him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Deut 12:5But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and there you shall come.
- Hag 2:11“Yahweh of Armies says: Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,
- Deut 1:17You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.”
- Num 35:19–34The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death.
- Exod 21:20“If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.
- Num 35:11then you shall appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the man slayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.
- Num 35:16“‘But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.
- Deut 19:4This is the case of the man slayer who shall flee there and live. Whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past;
- Exod 21:28“If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its meat shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible.
- 1 Kgs 3:16–28Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and stood before him.
- Ps 122:4–5where the tribes go up, even Yah’s tribes, according to an ordinance for Israel, to give thanks to Yahweh’s name.
- Exod 21:12–14“One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death,
- Deut 19:17then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days;
- Exod 22:2If the thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt of bloodshed for him.
- 2 Chr 19:8–10Moreover in Jerusalem Jehoshaphat appointed Levites and priests, and of the heads of the fathers’ households of Israel, for the judgment of Yahweh, and for controversies. They returned to Jerusalem.
- Exod 18:26They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard causes to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
- Exod 21:22“If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman’s husband demands and the judges allow.
- Mal 2:7For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of Armies.
- Deut 19:10–11This is so that innocent blood will not be shed in the middle of your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, leaving blood guilt on you.
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 17:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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