A JUDGE — and in Hebrew the word is wider than a man on a bench: the participle of shafat, to judge, govern, vindicate. It is the title of the book of Judges, whose shoftim are war-leaders and deliverers more often than magistrates. ⭐ Deuteronomy 16:18 is where the office is instituted for the towns — judges and officers you shall appoint for yourself in all your gates — and it is also the first word of the weekly synagogue reading named after it, Shoftim. ⚠ Beside him stands the shoter, the officer, a different word entirely: Israelite foremen under Egyptian taskmasters at Exodus 5:14, and the officials who dismiss men from the ranks and address the army before a battle at Deuteronomy 20:5-9. ⭐ The same root makes God a judge (ha-shofet kol ha-arets, Genesis 18:25) — which is why 16:19 can hand a human court the two things 10:17 says God does not do: lift a face, and take a bribe. → first discussed at Deut 16:18