Texts in Conversation
In 2 Chronicles, Jehoshaphat tells his judges that God disapproves of injustice, partiality, and bribery. In 1 Esdras, Zerubbabel gives these same qualities of God to truth, saying there is no partiality with her and nothing unrighteous in her judgment.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Chronicles 19:7
Hebrew Bible
6 He told the judges, “Be careful what you do, for you are not judging for men, but for the Lord, who will be with you when you make judicial decisions. 7 Respect the Lord and make careful decisions, for the Lord our God disapproves of injustice, partiality, and bribery.”
1 Esdras 4:39
Esdras A, 3 Esdras
Deuterocanon
37 Wine is unrighteous, the king is unrighteous, women are unrighteous, all the sons of men are unrighteous, all their works are unrighteous, and all such things. There is no truth in them and in their unrighteousness they will perish. 38 But truth endures and is strong for ever, and lives and prevails for ever and ever. 39 With her there is no partiality or preference, but she does what is righteous instead of anything that is unrighteous or wicked. All men approve her deeds, 40 and there is nothing unrighteous in her judgment. To her belongs the strength and the kingship and the power and the majesty of all the ages. Blessed be the God of truth!”
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Notes and References
“... 4:39–40. there is no partiality The speech ends with an apotheosis of truth in two stages. First is her justice in judgment, acknowledged and valued by everyone. The phrasing of these statements is almost a literal repetition of the attributes of God listed by King Jehoshaphat in his instruction to the judges: “For there is no perversion of justice with the Lord our God, or partiality, or taking of bribes” (2 Chron. 19:7 NRSV; cf. Deut. 10:17). [...] The speech on truth is an exemplary piece of Jewish rhetoric. It is fused with biblical concepts of the God of Israel, the one and only God, the creator of heaven and earth. It acclaims one of the most important tenets of Judaism—God’s justice in his rule of the world, compared with the injustice of humanity—and it judges all human beings by the same rod of justice before God. ...”
Japhet, Sara
"1 Esdras" in Feldman, Louis H.; Kugel, James L.; Schiffman, Lawrence H. (ed.) Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture
(p. 171) Jewish Publication Society, 2013
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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