Deuteronomy 17:12 - On the noun אִישׁ

(The above rendering comes from the RJPS translation, an adaptation of the NJPS translation. Before accounting for this rendering, I will analyze the plain sense of the Hebrew term containing אִישׁ, by employing a situation-oriented construal as outlined in this introduction, pp. 11–16.)

Verse 8 introduces the legal case at hand, where it is described most basically as דָבָר לַמִּשְׁפָּט ... דִּבְרֵי רִיבֹת בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ “a case … to decide … matters of dispute in your courts.”

Until this point in the treatment of this case, which introduces a new wrinkle in the case, the disputants have not been mentioned explicitly. Yet it goes without saying that there would be no case without the parties in dispute. In other words, their presence is definitive or constitutive for the case.

The noun phrase הָאִישׁ is commonly used, as here, to label a definitive participant. Together with the definite article, the situating noun profiles its referent in terms of participation in the discourse-active situation, namely the adjudicated dispute.

Logically, only the losing party would defy the judge’s decision. (The winning party would have no incentive to disregard the verdict.) The original audience would reliably draw this inference about the intended referent of הָאִישׁ as a matter of salience.

As for rendering into English, the NJPS rendering “a man” misses the mark, for it casts the directive in unduly general terms. For clarity, the revised rendering makes explicit what was implicit in the Hebrew text. The rendering replaces the situation-oriented label with a role label (“party”), which is more idiomatic in English.(See my comment at Josh 10:24.)