Deuteronomy 19:17
וְעָמְדוּ שְׁנֵֽי־הָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר־לָהֶם הָרִיב לִפְנֵי יְהוָה לִפְנֵי הַכֹּֽהֲנִים וְהַשֹּׁפְטִים אֲשֶׁר יִהְיוּ בַּיָּמִים הָהֵֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְעָמְד֧וּ שְׁנֵֽי־הָאֲנָשִׁ֛ים אֲשֶׁר־לָהֶ֥ם הָרִ֖יב לִפְנֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה לִפְנֵ֤י הַכֹּֽהֲנִים֙ וְהַשֹּׁ֣פְטִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר יִהְי֖וּ בַּיָּמִ֥ים הָהֵֽם׃
καὶ καὶ γνώσονται οἱ δύο ἄνθρωποι οἷς ἐστιν αὐτοῖς ἡ ἀντιλογία ἔναντι κυρίου καὶ ἔναντι τῶν ἱερέων καὶ ἔναντι τῶν κριτῶν οι ἐὰν ὦσιν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
stabunt ambo, quorum causa est, ante Dominum in conspectu sacerdotum et judicum qui fuerint in diebus illis.
entonces ambos hombres, entre los cuales está la controversia, se presentarán ante Yehová, ante los sacerdotes y los jueces que habrá en aquellos días;
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Entonces los dos hombres litigantes se presentarán delante de Jehová, delante de los sacerdotes y jueces que fueren en aquellos días:
both parties to the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD, before the priests and judges who are in office at that time.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Deuteronomy 19:17 states that the two men involved in a legal dispute must present themselves before Yehovah, specifically before the priests and judges holding office at that time. The verse sets the procedural stage for a legal case requiring adjudication.
Key words
- 'a.me.Du ("they will stand", H5975G) — qal sequential perfect; continues the narrative sequence begun in the preceding verses, indicating an action that follows logically/temporally from what precedes.
- 'a.na.Shim ("people", H0582) — masculine plural, here specified further by the numeral "two" (she.nei, H8147) in construct, giving "the two men."
- Riv ("dispute", H7379) — masculine singular noun with definite article, the legal matter that belongs to "them" (Hem, H9038), i.e., the two parties.
- f.Nei ("before", H6440G) — construct plural noun (literally "faces of"), repeated twice in the verse, once before Yah.weh (H3068G) and once before ha.Ko.ha.Nim ("the priests", H3548).
- Sho.fe.Tim ("judges", H8199) — qal participle, masculine plural, describing an ongoing function ("those who judge") rather than a fixed noun of office.
What the text says
The verse opens with the verb 'a.me.Du ("they will stand") placed before its subject she.nei-ha.'a.na.Shim ("the two men"), a common Hebrew word order that foregrounds the action. The subject is further defined by the relative clause 'a.sher-la.hem ha.Riv ("who have the dispute among them"), literally "whom to-them [belongs] the dispute" — a possessive construction using the preposition la (H9005) plus pronominal suffix rather than a verb "to have."
The location of this standing is expressed through two parallel prepositional phrases built on f.Nei ("before/face of"): first li.f.Nei Yah.weh ("before Yehovah"), then li.f.Nei ha.Ko.ha.Nim ve.ha.Sho.fe.Tim ("before the priests and the judges"). The repetition of f.Nei rather than a single shared preposition suggests two linked but distinct designations of presence — before Yehovah, and before the human officials. The judges are described not with a static title but with the participle Sho.fe.Tim ("the ones judging"), modified by the relative clause 'a.sher yih.Yu ba.ya.Mim ha.Hem ("who will be in those days"), marking the temporal limitation of that specific office-holding.
Differences between versions
The LXX (Swete text) reads γνώσονται ("they will know") where the Hebrew has 'a.me.Du ("they will stand"), a divergence in the main verb. The LXX text also shows a doubled καὶ καὶ at the start, apparently a duplication in the transmitted Greek. The Vulgate's stabunt ambo ("both will stand") corresponds closely to the Hebrew verb and dual subject.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.