Not respect persons, Heb. not know or acknowledge faces, i.e. not give sentence according to the outward qualities of the person as he is poor or rich, your friend or enemy, but purely according to the merits of the cause. For which reason some of the Grecian lawgivers ordered that the judges should give sentence in the dark, where they could not see men's faces. See the same or the like phrase Deuteronomy 10:17 2 Chronicles 19:6,7 Job 13:8 James 2:1,9. The small; persons of the meanest rank. The judgment is God s, i.e. it is passed in the name of God, and by commission from him, by you as representing his person, and doing his work, who therefore will own and defend you therein against all your enemies, and to whom you must give an exact account.
Related Commentaries of Deuteronomy 1:17
Deuteronomy 1:17
17 Ye shall not respectf persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.