17:15

The first line of this verse refers to two kinds of unjust judges. The second line describes the LORD’s attitude toward them. The NET Bible has been used as the source line for 17:15a, because it follows the recommended interpretation.

15a Acquitting the guilty and condemning the righteous—

15b both are detestable to the Lord.

He detests a judge who acquits a person who is guilty of a crime. He has the same attitude toward a judge who convicts an innocent person.

17:15a

(NET Bible) The one who acquits the guilty and the one who condemns the innocent: There are two ways to interpret this line:

(1) It refers to two kinds of unjust judges. For example:

One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous

(2) It refers to the actions of two kinds of unjust judges. For example:

Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent— (New International Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), along with a slight majority of versions and most scholars.

(NET Bible) The one who acquits the guilty: This phrase refers here to a judge who gives a legal verdict in a court case. He declares that a guilty person is innocent of the charge against him.

(NET Bible) the guilty: In Hebrew, this word is literally “the wicked,” as in the Revised Standard Version. In this context, it refers to a person who has committed a crime.

(NET Bible) and the one who condemns the innocent: This phrase refers here to a judge who convicts an innocent person of a crime that he did not commit. The judge declares that this person is guilty. By doing so, the judge condemns him to be punished.

(NET Bible) the innocent: In Hebrew, this word is literally “the righteous,” as in the Berean Standard Bible. In this context, it refers to a person who did not commit the crime with which he was charged.

Another way to translate 17:15a is:

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous (English Standard Version)

17:15b

both are detestable to the LORD: In the context of interpretation (1) in 17:15a, the word both refers to both kinds of unjust judges. However, this interpretation also implies that the LORD detests their unjust actions. So you may want to add a footnote with this implied information. A suggested footnote is:

This verse implies that the LORD detests the actions of unjust judges as well as the judges themselves.

For the phrase that Berean Standard Bible translates as are detestable to the LORD, see the note on 11:1a. The same phrase last occurred in 16:5a.

General Comment on 17:15a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder the two lines. For example:

The Lord despises those who acquit the guilty and condemn the innocent. (New Living Translation (1996))

See also 17:15a–b (combined/reordered) in the Display.

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.