Deuteronomy 29:9

The heads for the tribes

The important ones first, afterwards all of the people of Israel:

MOSHEH the prophet said: I have called you not in secret, but while standing this day all of you before the Lord your God; the princes of your sanhedrin, the chiefs of your tribes, your elders and your officers, all men of Israel,

You are standing assembled … before God your God They were surrounding the Ark.

your chiefs Scripture elides the second instance of a word which properly should be restated in the construct case. Compare, “toward the tent, [the tent] of Sarah his mother” [Genesis 24: 67] as well as “and the prophecy, [being the prophecy] of ‘Oded the prophet” [II Chronicles 15: 8]. Here, too, the meaning of the passage is “your chiefs, (namely, they who are the chiefs) of your tribes” (as in the similar passage “and their glory was lost, [the glory] of Ḥeshbon” [Numbers 21: 30] [this is one of two different explanations for that verse which ibn Ezra there offers — Translator]). The intent of this passage is to mention the leaders first, and then the elders, and then the officers, and afterwards all the men of Israel (i.e., the males), followed by the (male) children, and then the women, and finally, the aliens.

YE ARE STANDING THIS DAY ALL OF YOU BEFORE THE ETERNAL YOUR G-D. The meaning thereof is that you are standing and ready before G-d to be initiated into His covenant. For, in order to accept the Torah with its interpretation, they had gathered before him [Moses], or they may have stood before the ark of G-d. The covenant was the oath and imprecation which he mentioned — that thou shouldest enter into the covenant of the Eternal thy G-d, and into His oath. It is possible that he made another covenant with them like the first covenant which he made with them at Mount Sinai, namely, that he offered a burnt-offering on their behalf, and took half of the blood to sprinkle upon the altar and he sprinkled half of the blood upon the people, but it was unnecessary for him to mention this. And by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], I have already informed you of [the secret of] this covenant.

אתם נצבים היום כולכם, as we know from verse 1:'ויקרא משה את כל ישראל וגו

אתם נצבים...לפני ה' אלוקיכם , so that anyone who is capable of misleading me cannot mislead Him. You will accept this covenant in His presence, on His authority, not merely on mine.

ראשיכם שבטיכם זקניכם ושוטריכם, the people Moses describes as ראשיכם, are those who are heads of their tribes, elsewhere referred to as נשיאים, “princes. The term ראשalways includes the people who wield authority. זקניכם, your judges. ושוטריכם, the law enforcers empowered by the judges to enforce their judgments. Each one of these categories of people have the duty to teach the people (within the parameters of their special competence) how much better it is for them to accept Torah law than to defy it or neglect it.

אתם נצבים היום כולכם, “you are all standing at attention this day;” all at the same time; ordinary Israelites, judges, law enforcers. היום כולכם, “all of you as a unified congregation.”

The different attributes used in this verse include: even women, children, converts; these latter are included under the sub-heading of כל איש ישראל.