Will Kinney
Exodus 22:28 - Thou shalt not revile the gods.
At our Facebook forum, King James Bible Debate, a brother named Samuel asks: Exodus 22:28 KJV - Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.
Any documentation why the KJV translators (or whichever earliest version) chose "gods"? Modern versions usually translate it as "God”.
My Response -
Hi Samuel. Thanks for bringing this up. You caused me to do a study on this. I will post it as a separate thread. The KJB is right, as always, and I will show why in just a few minutes.
Exodus 22:28 the gods or God?
Exodus 23:28 “the gods”, “God” or “the judges”?
Exodus 23:28 -Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.
John 10:34-35 - Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? 35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
Psalms 82:1-2 - God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. 2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah…v.6-7 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High, But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
Exodus 7:1 - And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
King James Bible - Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.
NKJV (NET, NASB, ESV, NIV, Jehovah Witness NWT, Catholic St. Joseph NAB 1970, New Jerusalem 1985) - “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.”
Yet many of these modern versions footnote - “or judges”.
Agreeing with the King James Bible are the following Bible translations - Wycliffe 1395, Tyndale 1524, the Great Bible 1540, Matthew’s Bible 1549, ,the Bishops’ Bible 1568, Douay-Rheims 1610, The Hebrew Publishing Company Old Testament 1936, Conservative Version 2005, God’s First Truth 1999.
This Hebrew Interlinear online - the gods.
https://studybible.info/IHOT/Exodus%2022:28
The Ancient Hebrew Bible 1907 - Thou shalt not revile the gods
https://archive.org/.../ancienthebre.../page/138/mode/2up...
The Greek Septuagint - “Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor speak ill of the ruler of thy people.”
Other Versions - THE JUDGES
Geneva Bible 1599, Lesser Old Testament 1835, Darby 1890, Bible in Basic English 1961, New Berkeley Version 1969, KJV 21st Century, Third Millennium Bible 2010, Evangelical Heritage Version 2019, Jubilee Bible 2020 - Thou shalt not revile THE JUDGES, nor curse a prince amongst thy people.
The Complete Jewish Bible - You shall not curse A JUDGE, neither shall you curse a prince among your people.
https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9883
Lamsa’s 1933 translation of the Syriac Peshitta - “You shall not revile THE JUDGE nor curse the ruler of your people.”
Wycliffe Bible 1395 online - Thou shalt not backbite [the] gods, that is, (the) PRIESTS OR (the) JUDGES, and thou shalt not curse the prince of thy people (and thou shalt not curse the leaders of thy people).
Latin Vulgate - 28 Diis non detrahes, et principi populi tui non maledices. = not revile the gods….
https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/vul/exo022.htm#028
A Faithful Version 2022 - You shall not revile God’s JUDGES, nor curse the ruler of your people.
The Romanian Fidela Bible 2021 -Să nu ocărești dumnezeii, nici să nu blestemi pe conducătorul poporului tău. = You shall not revile the gods…
The French Martin bible 1744 - Tu ne médiras point des Juges, = the Judges.
Spanish Las Sagradas Escrituras 1549, Reina Valera 1960-2015 - No maldecirás a los jueces = the judges.
The Portuguese Almeida Atualizada - Aos juízes não maldirás = the judges.
The Hebrew word used here is #430 Elohim, and even the NASB, NIV, NET, ISV, Holman Standard and NKJV and others have translated this word as JUDGES 3 times.
Exodus 22:8-9 NASB - If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house shall appear before THE JUDGES, to determine whether he laid his hands on his neighbor’s property. 9 For every breach of trust, whether it is for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, or for any lost thing about which one says, ‘This is it,’ the case of both parties shall come before THE JUDGES; he whom THE JUDGES condemn shall pay double to his neighbor.
Both the Bible versions and the Bible commentators differ among themselves as to how to translate this verse with either “the gods” or “God” or even “the judges”, and what the verse means. Whether “the gods” refer to earthly judges, or the pagan gods or the true God of Israel.
Bible Commentators that agree with the idea that “the gods” refer to human judges.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary - 28. gods—a word which is several times in this chapter rendered “JUDGES” OR MAGISTRATES.
the ruler of thy people—and the chief magistrate who was also the high priest, at least in the time of Paul (Ac 23:1-5).
John Gill - Thou shalt not revile the gods,.... Meaning NOT THE IDOLS OF THE GENTILES, which they reckon gods, and worship as such… BUT CIVIL MAGISTRATES, THE JUDGES OF THE LAND, AND THE LIKE, ARE MEANT, who are powers ordained of God, are in his stead, and represent him, and therefore respect should be shown them; nor should they be treated with any degree of slight and contempt, which may discourage and intimidate them, and deter them from the execution of their office: the Targum of Jonathan interprets them of JUDGES very rightly, agreeably to Psalm 82:1 and so Aben Ezra says,”THEY ARE THE JUDGES and the priests, the sons of Levi, with whom the law is:"
John Calvin - “Thou shalt not revile the gods. First of all, He commands that we should think and speak reverently of JUDGES, and others, who exercise the office of magistrate: nor is it to be questioned, that, in the ordinary idiom of the Hebrew language, He repeats the same thing twice over; and consequently that THE SAME PERSONS ARE CALLED “gods” and “rulers of the people.” The name of God is, figuratively indeed, but most reasonably, applied to magistrates, upon whom, as the ministers of His authority, He has inscribed a mark of His glory. “
Matthew Poole’s Commentary - Gods; not gods falsely so called, as some would have it, as appears by 1 Kings 18:27 Jeremiah 10:11; BUT MAGISTRATES AND GOVERNORS WHETHER CIVIL OR ECCLESIASTICAL, as it is evident both from Acts 23:3-5 and from the following words, which explain the former, according to the common use of Scripture, and from the title of gods commonly given to such, as Exodus 7:1 Psalm 82:6 John 10:34,35.
Benson Commentary - Exodus 22:28 - Thou shalt not revile the gods — THAT IS, THE JUDGES AND MAGISTRATES. that is, Princes and magistrates are our fathers, whom the fifth commandment obligeth us to honour, and forbids us to revile. St. Paul applies this law to himself, and owns that he ought not to speak evil of the ruler of his people, no, not though he was then his most unrighteous persecutor, Acts 23:5.
Dan Wallace and NET version footnote - The word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is “gods” or “God.” If taken as the simple plural, it could refer to the human judges, as it has in the section of laws; this would match the parallelism in the verse. If it was taken to refer to God, then the idea of cursing God would be more along the line of blasphemy. B. Jacob says that the word refers to functioning judges, and that would indirectly mean God, for they represented the religious authority, and the prince the civil authority (Exodus, 708).
The King James Bible is right, as always.
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