What Does Deuteronomy 1:17 Mean?
You shall not recognize faces in judgment; hear and respond to the small as well as the great; do not shrink from the face of man; for the judgment is God's; and the word that is too hard for you, draw it near to me, and I will hear and respond to it.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.THE KEY
The Hebrew says “recognize faces” and then forbids fear of a man’s face: neither status nor intimidation gets to decide who is heard.
THE MEANING
A person’s face and rank do not decide whether they are heard. The small and great receive the same hearing; what exceeds your capacity is brought forward, because judgment belongs to God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that status makes someone’s claim more worthy of attention, or that a matter beyond your grasp must be left unheard.
THE ROOT
תַכִּירוּ פָנִים
takiru panim
GROWS FROM
נכר
n-k-r
To recognize or distinguish; to mark someone as familiar or different.
“recognize faces” in this verse is takiru panim. The phrase translated “respect persons” literally speaks of recognizing faces in judgment. The face, someone’s standing or identity, cannot become the reason the judgment bends.
ALSO GROWS
nakar: Recognize, notice, or distinguish.
נָכַר
It reveals the concrete image inside “respect persons”: identifying a face as a reason to treat the case differently.
nokri: Foreign or strange; a stranger.
נָכְרִי
The same root can mark someone as unfamiliar or outside, showing how recognition and distinction can shape how a person is regarded.
שָׁמֹעַ
shamoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, attend to, and respond to what is heard.
“hear and respond” in this verse is shamoa. The same root frames both hearings: the judges hear the small and great, then Moses hears the difficult matter. Justice here is not just a verdict; it is an open path for a case to be heard.
ALSO GROWS
shama: Hear, listen, or heed.
שָׁמַע
It is the verb behind the command to hear each person and the promise that the difficult case will be heard.
shemuah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch keeps attention on what reaches the hearer: a matter becomes available for judgment when it is received and heard.
יִקְשֶׁה
yiqsheh
GROWS FROM
קשה
q-sh-h
To be hard, difficult, or severe.
“hard” in this verse is yiqsheh. The difficult case is not dismissed as beyond hearing. Its difficulty marks the point where it is brought to another judge, while the verse locates judgment with God.
ALSO GROWS
qasheh: Hard or difficult.
קָשֶׁה
This is the adjective describing the case that exceeds the judges’ capacity.
hiqshah: Make hard or harden.
הִקְשָׁה
The related verb shows the root’s sense of hardness as something that can characterize or shape a condition.
THE PATTERN
Just judgment refuses to let rank decide who is heard or how a case is judged.
You shall do no crookedness in judgment; you shall not lift up the face of the bowed down, nor adorn the face of the great; but in alignment shall you judge the one beside you.Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face.My brothers, do not hold the trust of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Lord of weight, by receiving faces.THE THREAD
And they judged the people at all times; the hard word they brought to Moses, but every small word they judged themselves.“Hard” in this verse and “too hard” in Deuteronomy share the Hebrew root קשה (q-sh-h), meaning hard or difficult. Together they show difficulty as the point where a case is brought into a wider hearing, not left unheard.
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