JUSTICES

Persons responsible for deciding legal cases. At Job 31:11, 28 the phrase “for attention by the justices” is used in an adjective sense to describe errors calling for judgment. Thus in these verses An American Translation reads “a heinous sin” (vs 11) and “a heinous crime” (vs 28), instead of “an error for [attention by] the justices.” The “error” under consideration in verse 11 is adultery (vss 9, 10), a crime that in Job’s time may have been judged by the older men at the city gate. (Compare Job 29:7.) However, the “error” of verse 28 involves materialism and secret idolatry (vss 24-27), wrongs of mind and heart that cannot be established at the mouth of witnesses. Therefore, no human justices could determine guilt. Job, though, apparently recognized that God could judge such wrongs and that they were serious enough to warrant his judgment.