^8 (A)“If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the ^(B)place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ And ^(C)you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and ^(D)to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; ^(E)they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment.

¹⁷ then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, ^(A)before the priests and the judges who serve in those days.

⁵ Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for ^(A)the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; ^(B)by their word every controversy and every ^[a]assault shall be settled.

⁴ Of these, twenty-four thousand were to ^(A)look after the work of the house of the Lord, six thousand were ^(B)officers and judges,