There is good reason to helicve that, not unlike the Servian constitution of the Roman people (Arnold's Histonj of Rome, i, 70), the Hebrew nation from the first received a twofold organization, miitari/ixs well as po- litical (comp. Exod. xii, 51 ; Numb, i, 3, and through- out ; Numb, xxvi, 3; and 1 Cliron. vii, 4 and 40. See also Lowman's Dissertation on the Ciril Government of the Hehreu-s, p. 159, 18G, etc.). The classification of the people is very clearly indicated in Josh, vii, 14^18. (1.) The Tribe Q^'Ji^ or ::3r) was divided into clans, gentes, A.V. "families," rinS'liX!. (2.) Each Mislipachah comprised a number of ftmilia-, Auth.Vers. "houses," era. (3.) Each r^3 or "house" was made up of qualilied "men," fit for military as well as political service, being twenty years old and upward (Numb, i, 3). The word which descril;cs the individual member of the body politic, "I'Z^ (flur. C^"^^."), is very signifi- cant ; for it means vir a rohore dictiis (Gescnius, Thes. i, 2G2), " a man of valor," from "^, to be strong (Furst, Heb. Worteb. i, 239; Meier, Heh\ Wurz. IF.-t. p. 251). Now it was the organic union of the twelve tribes which constituted in the highest and truest sense the til", or blip,!, e. "Congregation," convened duly for a competent purpose (Kurtz, Hid. Old Corf, ii, 1G3). .\s with the Greeks tliere was an drtf^tia, and with the Latins a Dcminutio Capitis, so there were sundry faults whicli deprived a home-born Israelite (n~'X, Sept. av- rdx-^wr, ^'ulg. imligena; or HX, act\^oc,civis, in Deut. i, IG) of his privilege as a member of the national as- sembly (see Deut. xxiii. 1-8 [comp. with Neli. xiii, 1-
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C] ; also Exod. xii, 17, 19 ; xxx, 33, 38 ; xxxi, 14 ; Lev. % ii, -20, 21, 25, 27 ;. xvii, 4, 9, 10, 14 ; xviii, 29 ; xix, 8 ; x.K, 3, 6, 17, 18 ; xxx, 3, G, 17, 18 ; xxii, 3 ; xxiii, 29 : Numb, ix, 13 ; xv, 31 ; xix, 2U). On the other hand, tha franchise or ciritits ^\•as conferred (with certain ex- ceptions, such as are mentioned in Dent, xxiii, 3) on foreigners, D'^^S (A. V. '■ strangers ;" Sept. TcpoaiiKv- Tcn; Vulg. pereffriiii), after they had qualified them- selves by circumcision (Exod. xii, 19; Lev. xix, 34 ; Deut. xxix, 11, comp. with Isa. Ivi, G, 7).
The above words, expressive of the national congre- gation, sometimes imph^ (1) a meeting of the whole mass of the people ; sometimes (2) a congress of depu- ties (Jahn's Ilehreio Republic, p. 243). (1.) At first, when the whole nation dwelt in tents, in their migra- tion from Egypt to Canaan under the immediate com- mand of the great legislator, the Congregation seems to have comprised every qualified Israelite who had the right of a personal presence and vote in the con- gress. In Exod. XXXV, 1, this ample assembly is des- ignated PXI'w'';' "^la ri'l>"P2, /^e entire Conr/regatlon of tha Sons of Israel (jrhaa avvaywyt) v'lCov lapaijX, umnis (urhajillorum IsraeP). Similarly in Num. xxvii, 19, the phrase is n"l^)n~b3, all the Congregation (jraaa ■ij avvayuiyi], oinnis mvltitudo'), while in Lev. xvi, 17 we have ^X"!':^'] blrip~?3, the entire assembly of Israel (jraaa ain'ayu)yi) 'L<Tpa/}\, tmiversus catus Israel^. We would have no difficulty in supposing that every mem- ber of the EJah was present at such meetings as these, in the lifetime of Moses and before the nation was dis- persed throughout its settlements in Canaan, were it not that we occasionally find, in later times, an equal- ly ample designation used, when it is impossible to be- lieve that the nation could hava assembled at one place of meeting ; e. g. in Josh, xxii, 1 i, where " the whole congregation of the children of Israel" is mentioned ; and again still later, as at the dedication of Solomon's Temple in 1 Kings viii, 14; 2 Chron. i, 5. (2.) From this imi)Ossibility of personal attendance in the nation- al congregation, we should expsct to find a representa- tive constitution provided. Accordingly, in Nuni :. i, IG, we read of persons called fTl"^ "^X!!"!;?, not, as in the A. v., "renowned of the Congregation," hwtirontto he calkd to the Congregation (Michaelis, Lnirs of Moses, i, 230). In xvi, 2, the}' are still more explicitly styled ir'T2 ^Xnp r\-7-J ^i<'^t},i.e.ch:efsnftheCongregati'm who are culled to the Convention (rruyK\i]roi l-ioiXiic, gvi tempore consilii vocabantur). "While in Exod. xxxviii, 25 occurs the phrase m"r! "^iMpB, those deputed to the assemhhj, which exactly describes delegated persons. From Josh, xxiii, 2, and xxiv, 1, it would appear that these deputies were— (1) "The elders" (called "^2pT nnrn, "elders of the Congregation," in Lev. iv, 15), as if deputed thereto ; and " elders of Israel," or "of the people," as if representing them and nominated by tfliem (Deut. i, 13). (2) "The heads," Di'iTS"!, i. c. "the jirincos of the tribes" (Numb, i, 4, IG), and the ■ chiefs of the Mishpackoth, or " families" (xxvi,;)o,9sm). (3) "The judges;" not, of course, the extraordinary rulers, beginning with Othniel, but the 'Z^'^t'd, refer- red as in Deut. xvi, 18, stationed in every groat city, and sunnnoned probably as ex-offido members to the congregation. (4) " The officers" (3 ^1::^, ypcippartic, magistri ; whom Jahn calls genealogists, and Gesenius magistrates), whether centra'l, as in Numb, xi, IG, or provincial, as in Deut. xvi, 18. These four classes of men, in addition to official duties, seem to have had attached to their offices the prerogative of representing their countrymen at the national convention or Edah. We have not classed among these delegates either the " Jethronian pra>fects" (Exod. xviii, 15; Deut. i, 1.3- 15) or the seventy elders (Numb, xi, 16), for they were undoubtedly included already in one or other of the