Justice, Justice Shalt Thou Pursue

Justice, Justice Shalt Thou Pursue

In Hebrew the verse repeats its key word: tzedek, tzedek tirdof — "justice, justice shalt thou pursue." The KJV renders it "That which is altogether just shalt thou follow," but the doubling in the Hebrew is the point. This verse does not stand alone; it is the close of the same paragraph that gave #137 its commandment to appoint "judges and officers... in all thy gates" (Deuteronomy 16:18), and that, in the verse between them, forbids the judges themselves from wresting judgment, respecting persons, or taking a gift (Deuteronomy 16:19).

Read as one unit, the progression is exact: build the courts (16:18) — bind the judges inside them (16:19) — and then, having done both, still pursue justice (16:20), as though the first two steps were necessary but the third is the one that never finishes. A court can exist, and be honestly staffed, and justice can still fail to arrive at someone's door simply because no one went looking for where it was needed. "Pursue" is an active verb. Courts wait for cases to come to them. Pursuit goes the other direction.

The Thing That Thou Doest Is Not Good

The institution of #137 — judges "in all thy gates" — has an origin story, and it begins with Moses doing the opposite: sitting alone, all day, as every dispute in the camp came to him personally. Exodus 18:13 records the scene: "Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from morning unto even." His father-in-law Jethro, watching this, does not praise his diligence. "The thing that thou doest is not good", he says (Exodus 18:17) — one man cannot pursue justice for an entire nation by himself, no matter how willing he is.

Jethro's solution is structural: "thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands... hundreds... fifties, and... tens" (Exodus 18:21). The result, in verse 26, is a justice system that can actually pursue: "they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves" (Exodus 18:26). Deuteronomy 16:18's "judges in all thy gates" is Jethro's proposal, generations later, written into the law of the land — the structure that makes Deuteronomy 16:20's pursuit even possible.

Warn Them That They Trespass Not

What does "pursuing" justice look like once the structure exists? #137 already showed Jehoshaphat setting judges "city by city" (2 Chronicles 19:5). The instructions he gave them go further than simply telling them to rule honestly when a case arrives. 2 Chronicles 19:10 records Jehoshaphat telling the judges that whenever any dispute comes to them from the people in their cities, "ye shall even warn them that they trespass not against the LORD, and so wrath come upon you, and upon your brethren."

Warning is not waiting. A court that only rules on the cases brought to it is fulfilling #137 and the bribery-prohibition of Deuteronomy 16:19, but a court that warns people before the wrong is fully done — that tries to prevent the case rather than only resolve it — is doing what Deuteronomy 16:20 calls pursuit. The doubled word, tzedek tzedek, asks for justice that goes looking, not justice that merely sits and waits to be asked.

Key Figures

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