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Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 16

1 Observe the month Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month he brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 You must sacrifice the Passover animal (from the flock or the herd) to the Lord your God in the place where he chooses to locate his name. 3 You must not eat any yeast with it; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, as symbolic of affliction, for you came out of Egypt hurriedly. You must do this so you will remember for the rest of your lives the day you came out of the land of Egypt. 4 There must not be a scrap of yeast within your land for seven days, nor can any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until the next morning. 5 You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your villages that the Lord your God is giving you, 6 but you must sacrifice it in the evening in the place where he chooses to locate his name, at sunset, the time of day you came out of Egypt.⁠ 7 You must boil13 and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses;⁠ you may return the next morning to your tents.⁠ 8 You must eat bread made without yeast for six days. The seventh day you are to hold an assembly for the Lord your God; you must not do any work on that day. 9 You must count seven weeks; you must begin to count them from the time you begin to harvest the standing grain. 10 Then you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks before the Lord your God with the voluntary offering that you will bring, in proportion to how he has blessed you. 11 You shall rejoice before him—you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites in your villages, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows among you—in the place where the Lord chooses to locate his name. 12 Furthermore, remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and so be careful to observe these statutes. 13 You must celebrate the Feast of Shelters for seven days, at the time of the grain and grape harvest. 14 You are to rejoice in your festival,⁠ you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows who are in your villages. 15 You are to celebrate the festival seven days before the Lord your God in the place he chooses, for he will bless you in all your productivity and in whatever you do; so you will indeed rejoice! 16 Three times a year all your males must appear before the Lord your God in the place he chooses for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Shelters; and they must not appear before him empty-handed. 17 Every one of you must give as you are able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. 18 You must appoint judges and civil servants for each tribe in all your villages that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly.⁠ 19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort the words of the righteous.⁠ 20 You must pursue justice alone so that you may live and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you.⁠ 21 You must not plant any kind of tree as a sacred Asherah pole near the altar of the Lord your God which you build for yourself.⁠ 22 You must not erect a sacred pillar, a thing the Lord your God detests.

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 16:20 and Proverbs 21:21

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy commands the pursuit of justice as the basis for life in the land, reshaping traditions that rejected bribery and corruption. Proverbs echoes this, teaching that one who pursues righteousness and loyalty will find life and honor.

Passages

Deuteronomy 16:20

Hebrew Bible
18 You must appoint judges and civil servants for each tribe in all your villages that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. 19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort the words of the righteous. 20 You must pursue justice alone so that you may live and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you. 21 You must not plant any kind of tree as a sacred Asherah pole near the altar of the Lord your God which you build for yourself. 22 You must not erect a sacred pillar, a thing the Lord your God detests.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Proverbs 21:21

Hebrew Bible
19 It is better to live in the wilderness than with a quarrelsome and easily provoked woman. 20 There is desirable treasure and olive oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish person devours all he has. 21 The one who pursues righteousness and love finds life, bounty, and honor. 22 A wise man went up against the city of the mighty and brought down the stronghold in which they trust. 23 The one who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his life from troubles.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Proverbs

References

"... The presented considerations show in an exemplary way that the book of Deuteronomy does not simply belong to a continuum of sapiential tradition. older concepts of “wisdom” are distinctively transformed in Deuteronomy 1:13, 15 and in Deuteronomy 16:19–20, but in both cases in a different way. In Deuteronomy 16:19–20, the transformation substantially relativizes any claim of Israel's judges to be “wise.” There are indications that this claim was related to the self-perception of the Deuteronomistic scribes. if this holds true, the phrase “the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise” can be read as a kind of scribal self-critique. At the same time, the Deuteronomistic editing of Deuteronomy, of which both Deuteronomy 1:9–18 and Deuteronomy 16:19–20 are part, draws on sapiential tradition on more than one occasion. The judicial instruction of Deuteronomy 1:17a resumes a tradition of condemning partiality in judgment that is represented by Proverbs 24:23. The commandment of Deuteronomy 16:20 reformulates the admonition of Proverbs 21:21. The proverbial saying, “the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and twists the cases of the righteous,” is, through Exodus 23:8b, indirectly dependent on a sapiential tradition that obviously influenced this section of the covenant code ..."
Reinhard Müller, “The Blinded Eyes of the Wise: Sapiential Tradition and Mosaic Commandment in Deut 16:19–20,” in Wisdom and Torah: The Reception of “Torah” in the Wisdom Literature of the Second Temple Period, ed. Bernd U. Schipper and D. Andrew Teeter, JSJSup 163 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 9–33.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Deuteronomy 16:20 and Proverbs 21:21

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