Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly

“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly?” is Abraham’s challenge to the prospect that the righteous might be swept away with the wicked. Spoken as he pleads for Sodom, the question joins divine judgment to justice; elsewhere, the same concern is given concrete shape in laws governing harm, compensation, evidence, and protection of the vulnerable.

The Question in Abraham’s Plea

After the LORD disclosed the grave outcry against Sodom, Abraham remained before Him as the two other visitors went toward the city. Abraham asked whether the righteous would be treated like the wicked and appealed to the Judge of all the earth to act justly. His question is both an objection to indiscriminate destruction and a claim about the character of judgment: justice must distinguish the righteous from the wicked.

The exchange proceeds through a descending count. Abraham first asks whether fifty righteous people would spare the place; the LORD agrees. Abraham then asks about forty-five, forty, thirty, and twenty, receiving the same assurance at each step. Finally he asks about ten, and the LORD says that He will not destroy the city for the sake of ten. The passage ends with the LORD departing after the conversation and Abraham returning to his place.

Justice in the Covenant Code

The Covenant Code renders justice through specific cases and remedies rather than a single abstract formula. For an injury to a pregnant woman, it distinguishes a case in which no further harm follows, settled by a fine, from one in which harm does follow, answered by proportionate penalties. Injury to a servant’s eye or tooth requires release, while a goring ox brings different consequences depending on whether its owner had previously been warned.

Property rules likewise take circumstances into account. Restitution varies with whether stolen livestock is recovered alive or has been killed or sold; responsibility for an animal that falls into an uncovered pit belongs to the person who left it open. The rules also distinguish a first goring from a known danger that an owner failed to restrain, making prior warning relevant to liability.

Impartial Judgment and Vulnerable Neighbours

The law connects justice to fair procedure. It forbids false reports, warns against following a crowd into wrongdoing, and rejects both favoritism toward the poor and distortion of a poor person’s case. A gift is prohibited because it can blind those who judge and twist the words of the righteous. These instructions make impartiality a requirement even when competing social pressures might pull judgment in opposite directions.

Justice also governs conduct beyond the hearing of a court. The people must return an enemy’s wandering ox or ass and help an enemy’s ass when it has fallen under its burden. They must not oppress a stranger, with the memory of their own sojourn in Egypt given as the reason. Loans to the poor must not carry interest, and a garment taken as a pledge must be returned by sunset because it is the borrower’s covering for sleep.

From Appeal to Communal Obligation

At Sinai, the principle moves from Abraham’s individual appeal into the terms of a people’s covenant. The LORD promises that Israel will be a treasured people and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation if they heed His voice and keep the covenant. The people answer together that they will do what the LORD has spoken; Moses later reads the book of the covenant, and they again assent before the covenant is sealed with blood.

The question’s lasting force lies in this connection between judgment and obligation. The Sodom exchange tests whether divine justice can spare a city for the sake of its righteous inhabitants; the laws make justice answerable in ordinary relations among neighbours, workers, owners, judges, and strangers. In both settings, judgment is not merely power exercised over others: it must reckon with distinctions, responsibility, and the claims of those exposed to harm.