Deuteronomy 1:17
לֹֽא־תַכִּירוּ פָנִים בַּמִּשְׁפָּט כַּקָּטֹן כַּגָּדֹל תִּשְׁמָעוּן לֹא תָגוּרוּ מִפְּנֵי־אִישׁ כִּי הַמִּשְׁפָּט לֵאלֹהִים הוּא וְהַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר יִקְשֶׁה מִכֶּם תַּקְרִבוּן אֵלַי וּשְׁמַעְתִּֽיו׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
לֹֽא־תַכִּ֨ירוּ פָנִ֜ים בַּמִּשְׁפָּ֗ט כַּקָּטֹ֤ן כַּגָּדֹל֙ תִּשְׁמָע֔וּן לֹ֤א תָג֙וּרוּ֙ מִפְּנֵי־אִ֔ישׁ כִּ֥י הַמִּשְׁפָּ֖ט לֵאלֹהִ֣ים ה֑וּא וְהַדָּבָר֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִקְשֶׁ֣ה מִכֶּ֔ם תַּקְרִב֥וּן אֵלַ֖י וּשְׁמַעְתִּֽיו׃
οὐκ ἐπιγνώσῃ πρόσωπον ἐν κρίσει· κατὰ τὸν μικρὸν καὶ κατὰ τὸν μέγαν κρινεῖς, οὐ μὴ ὑποστείλῃ πρόσωπον ἀνθρώπου, ὅτι ἡ κρίσις τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστίν· καὶ τὸ ῥῆμα ὃ ἐὰν σκληρὸν ᾐ ἀφ’ ὑμῶν, ἀνοίσετε αὐτὸ ἐπ’ ἐμέ, καὶ ἀκούσομαι ὑμῶν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Nulla erit distantia personarum: ita parvum audietis ut magnum, nec accipietis cujusquam personam, quia Dei judicium est. Quod si difficile vobis visum aliquid fuerit, referte ad me, et ego audiam.
No mostrarán parcialidad en el juicio; escucharán por igual al pequeño y al grande. No temerán el rostro del hombre, porque el juicio es de Dios. El caso que sea demasiado duro para ustedes, me lo traerán, y yo lo escucharé”.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
No tengáis respeto de personas en el juicio: así al pequeño como al grande oiréis: no tendréis temor de ninguno, porque el juicio es de Dios: y la causa que os fuere difícil, la traeréis á mí, y yo la oiré.
Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
Deuteronomy 1:17 instructs those appointed as judges not to show partiality in judgment, treating small and great alike, and not to fear any person, since judgment belongs to God. Cases too difficult are to be brought to Moses, who will hear them.
Key words
- ta.Ki.ru ("you will pay regard to", H5234A) — hiphil imperfect, 2mp; a causative form literally meaning "to recognize/distinguish," here negated to forbid distinguishing faces (i.e., showing favoritism).
- fa.Nim ("faces", H6440N) — masculine plural noun; combined with the verb above to form the idiom "to recognize faces," meaning to show partiality.
- ta.Gu.ru ("you will be afraid", H1481C) — qal imperfect, 2mp; from a root meaning "to dread/be afraid of," describing the prohibition against fearing a person's presence.
- mish.Pat ("judgment", H4941G) — masculine singular noun, appearing three times (positions 5, 19), anchoring the passage's theme; in position 19-22 it is stated to belong (le, H9005) to Elohim ("God", H0430G).
- tak.ri.Vu ("you will bring near", H7126H) — hiphil imperfect, 2mp, with paragoric nun; a causative verb meaning to cause something to approach, here used for bringing difficult cases forward.
What the text says
The verse opens with two parallel negative commands using imperfect verbs with paragogic nun (a suffix marking emphasis, H9013): lo' ta.Ki.ru fa.Nim ("you will not recognize faces") and lo' ta.Gu.ru mi.pe.nei ("you will not fear from the face of"). Both use the noun fa.Nim / pe.nei ("faces", H6440), showing a deliberate wordplay — one forbids distinguishing between faces in judgment, the other forbids fearing a person's face. The comparative structure ka.Ton ... ga.Dol ("small" H6996B ... "great" H1419A), each prefixed with ka ("as the", H9004), creates a merism: small and great are to be treated identically under mish.Pat ("judgment", H4941G).
The causal clause introduced by ki ("for/because", H3588A) grounds this instruction: ha.mish.pat le.lo.Him hu' ("the judgment [belongs] to God, it [is]"), using the preposition le (H9005) to express possession, with the pronoun Hu' ("he/it", H1931) functioning as a copula. The final clause shifts to a relative construction: ha.da.Var 'a.Sher yik.Sheh mi.Kem ("the matter which will be hard from you"), where mi.Kem (H9036, "from you") expresses the source of difficulty — the case that proves too hard for the addressees. The sequence closes with a vav-consecutive perfect, she.ma'.Ti ("I will hear", H8085G), marking the resultant action following the imperative chain: once brought near (tak.ri.Vu), the speaker will hear the case, with the pronominal suffix -vu (H9033, "it/his") attached to the verb referring back to ha.da.Var ("the matter").
Differences between versions
The LXX renders ta.Ki.ru fa.Nim ("you will recognize faces") as ἐπιγνώσῃ πρόσωπον, singular verb form, differing from the Hebrew's plural addressee form. The Vulgate paraphrases the same clause as "Nulla erit distantia personarum" ("there will be no distinction of persons"), an abstraction not directly mirroring the Hebrew idiom of "recognizing faces." Where the Hebrew ends with ve.she.ma'.Ti ("and I will hear it," with the suffix on the verb), the LXX has καὶ ἀκούσομαι ὑμῶν ("and I will hear you," second person plural pronoun) rather than referring to the matter itself.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.