What Does Deuteronomy 17:9 Mean?
And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who will be in those days, and search it out. And they shall tell you the word of judgment.
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
And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:THE KEY
Judgment here is not guessed in isolation: it is sought, then spoken as a ruling.
THE MEANING
When a matter demands judgment, you bring it to those entrusted to discern it, and you ask. They make the judgment known in words, giving the matter a shared, speakable answer. The verse holds inquiry and ruling together: the answer takes shape through a question made explicit.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the assumption that clarity always arrives as private certainty: here the answer is sought and made known by people entrusted with judgment.
THE ROOT
וְדָרַשְׁתָּ
vedarashta
GROWS FROM
ד־ר־שׁ
d-r-sh
Seek, inquire, consult, investigate.
“search it out” in this verse is vedarashta. The root carries the sense of actively seeking out an answer. The ruling begins with a matter being brought forward and pursued through inquiry; the question is part of the work of discernment.
ALSO GROWS
doresh: One who seeks or inquires.
דּוֹרֵשׁ
It shows the root as an active seeker, matching the person who brings a matter forward for an answer.
midrash: Inquiry or exposition.
מִדְרָשׁ
It preserves the movement from seeking into close interpretation, showing how inquiry can lead beyond a first answer.
הַמִּשְׁפָּט
ham-mishpat
GROWS FROM
ש־פ־ט
sh-p-t
Judge, decide, or govern a case; establish its right order.
“word of judgment” in this verse is ham-mishpat. The verse uses this same root for the judge, שֹׁפֵט (shophet: judge), and the judgment, מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat: ruling or justice). The person who weighs the case and the ruling share one seed, so “sentence of judgment” can carry the sense of a spoken decision about the matter, not only punishment.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge, decide, or govern.
שָׁפַט
This verb names the act carried out by the judge in the verse.
shophet: A judge, one who decides a case.
שֹׁפֵט
The same root names the person who weighs the matter and the decision that follows.
וְהִגִּידוּ
vehiggidu
GROWS FROM
נ־ג־ד
n-g-d
Make known, tell, declare.
“tell you” in this verse is vehiggidu. The answer is made known to you; it is not left as a hidden opinion. The root behind “shew” also names telling and declaring, so the judgment becomes accessible through words.
ALSO GROWS
higgid: Declared or made known.
הִגִּיד
It names the act the priests and judge perform: making the ruling known.
maggid: One who tells or declares.
מַגִּיד
It shows the root as a person carrying something into speech, echoing the verse’s movement from inquiry to an answer heard.
THE PATTERN
A ruling takes shape when a matter is brought into inquiry and weighed beyond the first account.
And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to seek God.The aligned one at the head of his own contention seems straight, but his neighbor comes and searches him out.And the sent ones and elders came together to perceive about this word.THE THREAD
For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king. He will deliver us.Isaiah names the LORD as judge with the same ש־פ־ט (sh-p-t: judging) root carried by “judgment” here. Placing judge, lawgiver, and king together opens the verse’s picture of judgment as part of the order that governs and brings deliverance.
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