What Does Exodus 21:1 Mean?
And these are the judgments you set before their faces.
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
Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.THE KEY
Judgment is placed in the people’s line of sight: what orders their shared life stands before them, available to be seen.
THE MEANING
The judgments that shape life together are placed before the community, where they can be seen and weighed. Their root holds both deciding and governing, so judgment names discernment that gives shared life its order.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the belief that judgment is only punishment after wrongdoing; its Hebrew root also names deciding and governing, giving a community a way to order shared life.
THE ROOT
הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים
hamishpatim
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
To judge, decide a case, or govern through discernment.
The plural names a body of judgments, and its root spans deciding a case and governing, so it reaches beyond punishment to the ordering of life together. Set before the community, this discernment comes into shared view.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or decide.
שָׁפַט
The action behind the noun shows judgment as an act of discernment.
shofet: A judge or ruler.
שֹׁפֵט
The judge applies decisions to the ordering of shared life.
mishpat: A judgment, decision, or ordinance.
מִשְׁפָּט
The singular form shows each judgment as a concrete decision within the larger body.
לִפְנֵיהֶם
liphnêhem
GROWS FROM
פנה
p-n-h
To turn or face toward; the related noun פָּנִים (panim) means face, front, or presence.
The Hebrew phrase evokes what lies before their faces: the judgments meet the community in its own field of view. Their placement is relational, the people are directly addressed by what orders their shared life.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face, front, or presence.
פָּנִים
The related word for face gives “before them” a face-to-face quality.
lifnei: Before or in front of.
לִפְנֵי
This is the form within the verse’s phrase, placing the judgments in front of the people.
THE PATTERN
What orders shared life is made visible as a path people can choose and embody.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.I choose the way of steadiness; I set your judgments before me.If you complete the royal instruction according to the writing, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You do well.THE THREAD
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.The words “judgment” and “judge” here grow from שפט (sh-p-t, to judge or decide), the same root carried by מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim, judgments) in Exodus 21:1. This connection shows judgment taking shape in practice: the neighbor is judged without favoritism toward either poverty or power.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us