וָאֲצַוֶּה֙ אֶת־שֹׁ֣פְטֵיכֶ֔ם בָּעֵ֥ת הַהִ֖וא לֵאמֹ֑ר שָׁמֹ֤עַ בֵּין־אֲחֵיכֶם֙ וּשְׁפַטְתֶּ֣ם צֶ֔דֶק בֵּֽין־אִ֥ישׁ וּבֵין־אָחִ֖יו וּבֵ֥ין גֵּרֽוֹ׃
I charged your magistrates at that time as follows, “Hear out your fellow Israelites, and decide justly between one party and the other—be it a fellow Israelite or a stranger.
(The above rendering comes from the RJPS translation, an adaptation of the NJPS translation.)
The relational noun אָח (in specific reference, literally “brother”) is employed here twice in non-specific reference, connoting a sense of kinship that imparts a duty of care toward those whom it denotes, namely the disputants. This kind of reference does not specify the gender of its referent (other than that those in view are not solely womanly).
In this case, an ancient Israelite audience would have assumed that women were among the expected disputants. Women could be parties to legal proceedings (e.g., Num 27:1–4; 2 Sam 14:4–7; 1 Kgs 3:16–22).
The situating noun אִישׁ is used here to schematically describe the manner of action of the verb. As usual, it profiles the main participants (the parties to the dispute) as defining the situation under discussion. It is placed in a reciprocal construction, which regards the two participants as interchangeable with respect to the depicted action.
As for the translation, the NJPS “your fellow men … between any man and a fellow Israelite” nowadays overemphasizes masculine gender. As there is no warrant for rendering in gendered terms, the revised renderings are gender neutral. At the same time, they express the kinship connotation of אָח.