Then his master shall bring him unto the
judges (הָאֱלֹהִים); he shall also bring him to the
door or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an
aul, and he shall serve him for ever. (Exo 21:6)
And if a man lie not in wait, but God (הָאֱלֹהִים) deliver him into his hand; then I will
appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. (Exo 21:13)
If the thief be not found, then the master of
the house shall be brought unto the judges, to see whether he have put his hand
unto his neighbour's goods. For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox,
for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing, which another
challengeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges (הָאֱלֹהִים); and whom the judges shall condemn, he
shall pay double unto his neighbour. (Exod. 22:8-9)
In David P.
Wright, Inventing God's Law: How the
Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2009), 254-58, Wright refuted the claim that אלהים in Exo 21:6, 13 and 22:8-9 (vv.
7-8 in the Hebrew) are human judges; instead, he argues that God/deity
is in view. I have scanned these pages and put them up online for a handy
reference for those interested (PDF
here). Indeed, many modern translations (e.g., NRSV; 1985 JPS Tanakh) has “God”
in these texts, not “[human] judges.”
