What Does Deuteronomy 1:17 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
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.
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.
“too 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.
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.THE THREAD
And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter 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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