SEV Biblia, Chapter 17:8
¶ Cuando alguna cosa te fuere oculta en el juicio entre sangre y sangre, entre causa y causa, y entre llaga y llaga, en negocios de rencillas en tus ciudades; entonces te levantarás y subirás al lugar que el SEÑOR tu Dios escogiere;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 17:8
Verse 8. If there arise a matter too hard for thee] These directions are given to the common magistrates, who might not be able to judge of or apply the law in all cases that might be brought before them. The priests and Levites, who were lawyers by birth and continual practice, were reasonably considered as the best qualified to decide on difficult points.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 8. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment , etc.] This is spoken to inferior judges in cities in the country, who sometimes might have cases too wonderful and mysterious, as the word signifies, or secret and hidden, such as were out of their reach and beyond their capacity, and so be very difficult for them to determine what should be done: between blood and blood ; that is, whether a man is guilty of shedding innocent blood or not; when such a case is depending between a person charged with it and the relatives of the deceased, or between a man slayer and the avenger of blood, and the question is, whether he may have the benefit of a city of refuge or not, and there are some circumstances attending it which make it difficult how to determine: between plea and plea ; of the plaintiff on one side and of the defendant on the other, and both have so much to say in their own cause, that it is hard to decide which is in the right and which is in the wrong, whether in capital or pecuniary cases; it chiefly if not solely respects civil things in controversy: and between stroke and stroke ; blow or wound which one man received from another, and for which he commences a suit of law upon it, ( Exodus 21:18,19) or for assault and battery; and so Aben Ezra interprets it of blows and bruises; but the Jewish writers generally interpret it of the plague, or stroke of leprosy; so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem; but the examination of such a case did not belong to the civil magistrate, but to a priest; nor was such a person had up to Jerusalem to be searched, but was shut up in a house until further evidence could be got; and, besides, the signs of the leprosy are so distinctly given, that at waiting a proper time, there was seldom or ever any difficulty about determining it: [being] matter of controversy within thy gates ; or what are matters of controversy about anything else; for the phrase is general, as Aben Ezra observes, and takes in everything in which anything difficult might occur; so Jarchi interprets it of things which the wise men of a city are divided about; one pronounces a person or thing unclean, another clean, one condemning and another justifying, and so far rightly; for this respects not controversies between men, that may be brought into courts of judicature, but controversies or divisions arising in these courts upon them, between the judges themselves, they not agreeing in their opinions: then shalt thou arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose ; to Jerusalem, to the great sanhedrim or court of judicature, to which the inferior judges were to apply themselves, in matters of moment and difficulty, for instruction, information, and direction; it being supposed that in such a court such like cases may have been brought before them, and they were expert and understanding in them.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 8-13 - Courts of judgment were to be set up in every city. Though their judgment had not the Divine authority of an oracle, it was the judgmen of wise, prudent, experienced men, and had the advantage of a Divin promise.
Original Hebrew
כי 3588 יפלא 6381 ממך 4480 דבר 1697 למשׁפט 4941 בין 996 דם 1818 לדם 1818 בין 996 דין 1779 לדין 1779 ובין 996 נגע 5061 לנגע 5061 דברי 1697 ריבת 7379 בשׁעריך 8179 וקמת 6963 ועלית 5927 אל 413 המקום 4725 אשׁר 834 יבחר 977 יהוה 3068 אלהיך׃ 430
