Verse 6 returns to the courtroom setting. You shall not pervert the justice uses the same word for pervert as in verse 2, and here the word for justice is explicit. But the word for pervert may also mean “turning aside” or “denying.” So Good News Translation has “Do not deny justice,” and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “You shall not subvert the rights.”

Justice due to your poor is literally “justice of your [singular] needy,” with the same word for justice (mishpat) that is used in 21.9. The word for poor is different from that used in verse 3, but the meaning is the same. (See the discussion there on ways to translate “poor.”) The idea of due is understood but not explicit in the text. The pronoun your is omitted in Good News Translation, but New American Bible has “one of your needy fellow men,” and New Jerusalem Bible has “the poor among you.” In his suit, as in verse 3, means “in his lawsuit” (Revised English Bible), or “in court” (Good News Translation). Contemporary English Version has “Make sure that the poor are given equal justice in court.” An alternative model is “when a poor person appears before the judges, you must make sure that they decide [or, judge] his case fairly.” In cultures where “chiefs” are the judges, one may translate “Chiefs must decide the cases of poor people just as fairly as they judge other people.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .