What Does Exodus 21:1 Mean in the King James?
Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
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
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.
“before them” in this verse is liphnêhem. 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 record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:THE THREAD
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.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.
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