Parashat Shoftim — Judges
שׁוֹפְטִים
Shoftim (שׁוֹפְטִים) means "judges" — taken, as every parashah name is, from the portion's opening words in the Hebrew.
The Readings
Torah Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9 Read →
Haftarah Isaiah 51:12-52:12 Read →
B'rit Chadashah Acts 3:17-26 Read →
B'rit Chadashah 1 Timothy 3:1-13 Read →
What Happens in Shoftim
Judges and officers — shoftim v'shotrim — you shall appoint in all your gates, throughout your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality; neither shall you take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise. Then the doubled word that defines godly government: justice, justice you shall pursue, that you may live and inherit the land. Capital cases demand process: at the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he who is to die be put to death; at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. Hard cases go up to the priests and the judge who shall be in those days at the place of the Name, and the verdict binds.
Then the offices of the nation, each set under the Torah. The king must be one whom YHVH chooses, from among your brothers — forbidden to multiply horses, wives, or silver and gold — and one thing is commanded him: he shall write for himself a copy of this Torah, and read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear YHVH his God, and that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers. The priests and Levites live from the altar, for YHVH is their inheritance. Against the nations' diviners, sorcerers, and necromancers stands Israel's way of hearing heaven: YHVH your God will raise up for you a Prophet from your midst, from your brothers, like me; him you shall hear — the promise given at Chorev, and the prophecy Peter and Stephen proclaim fulfilled in Yeshua. The false prophet is exposed by the simplest test: if the thing does not come to pass, YHVH has not spoken it.
The cities of refuge are expanded with the land, so that innocent blood is not shed; landmarks are not moved; the single witness is never enough; and the false witness receives exactly what he schemed to do to his brother. Then war, bounded by faith and mercy: when you see horses and chariots, a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them, for YHVH your God is with you. The officers send home the man with a new house, a new vineyard, a betrothed wife, and the fearful and fainthearted, lest his brothers' heart melt as his heart. Peace is offered before any siege; and even in siege, the fruit trees are spared: is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you? The portion closes with the eglah arufah: when a slain man is found and the killer unknown, the elders of the nearest city break a heifer's neck in an untilled valley, wash their hands over it, and declare, our hands have not shed this blood — because in Israel, innocent blood is never simply shrugged off; someone must answer for it before YHVH, even when no one is guilty.
Main Themes
Justice, justice you shall pursue A king under the Torah, not above it The Prophet like Moshe Warfare bounded by mercy and restraint Communal responsibility for innocent blood
Key Events
· Judges appointed; bribery forbidden
· The law of witnesses
· The law of the king and his Torah scroll
· The Prophet like Moshe foretold
· The laws of warfare and the spared trees
· The eglah arufah for an unsolved death
Key People
Moshe The judges and officers The future king The Prophet to come
Key Verses
Deuteronomy 16:20 Read →
“You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.”
Deuteronomy 18:15 Read →
“The LORD your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.”
Deuteronomy 17:19 Read →
“It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;”
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