I. Earliest Forms and Characteristics of the Magiste- rial Office among the Ilebreics.,— The administration of justice in all early Eastern nations, as among the Arabs of the desert to this day, rests with the patriarchal se- niors, the judges being the heads of tribes, or of chief houses in a tribe. (The expression ISXTY^a ^'^^?, Numb. XXV, 14, is remarkable, and seems to mean the patriarchal senior of a subdivision of the tribe : comp. 1 Chron. iv, 38; Judg. v, 3, 15). Such, from their ele- vated position, would have the requisite leisure, would be able to make their decisions respected, and through the wider intercourse of superior station would decide with fuller experience and riper reflection. Thus, in the book of Job (xxi.x, 7, 8, 9), the patriarchal magnate is represented as going forth " to the gate" amid the re- spectfid silence of elders, princes, and nobles (compare xxxii, 9). The actual chiefs of individual tribes are mentioned on various occasions, one as late as the time of David, as preserving importance in the common- wealth (Numb, vii, 2, 10, 11 ; xvii, 6, or 17 in Heb. text ; xxxiv, 18; Josh, xxii, 14; so perh. Numb, xvi, 2; xxi, 18). Whether the princes of the tribes mentioned in 1 Chron. xxvii, 16; xxviii, 1, are patriarchal heads, or merel}' chief men appointed by the king to govern, is not strictly certain; but it would be foreign to all an-
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cient Eastern analogy to suppose that they forfeited the judicial prerogative before they were overshadowed by the monarcliy, and in David's time this is contrary to the tenor of history. During the oppression of Egypt the nascent people would necessarily have lew questions at law to plead, and the Egyptian magistrate would take cognizance of theft, violence, and other matters of police. Yet the question put to Moses shows that " a prince'" and "a judge" were connected even then in the popular idea (Exod. ii, 14; compare Numb, xvi, 13). When the people emerged from this oppression into national existence, the want of a machinery of judicature began to press. The patriarchal seniors did not instantly as- sume the function, having probably been depressed by bondage till rendered untit for it, not having become experienced in such matters, nor having secured the confidence of their tribesmen. Perhaps for these rea- sons IMoses at Erst took the whole burden of judicature upon himself, then at the suggestion of Jethro (Exod. xviii, 14-24) instituted judges over numerically gradu- ated sections of the peojile. These were chosen for tlieir moral fitness, but from Deut. i, 15, 16, we may infer that they were taken from among those to whom primogen- iture would have assigned it. Save in offences of public magnitude, criminal cases do not apjjear to have been distinguished from civil. The duty of teaching the people the knowledge of the law which pertained to the Levites, doubtless included such instruction as would assist the judgment of those who were thus to decide according to it. The Levites were thus the ultimate sources of ordinary jurisprudence, and perhaps the " teaching" aforesaid maj^ merely mean expounding the law as applicable to difficult cases arising in prac- tice. Beyond this it is not possible to indicate any di- vision of the provinces of deciding on points of law as distinct from points of fact. The judges mentioned as standing before Joshua in the great assemblies of the people must be understood as the successors of those chosen by Moses, and liad doubtless been elected with Joshua's sanction from among the same general class of patriarclial seniors (Josh, iv, 2, 4; xxii, 14; xxiv, 1).
The judge was reckoned a sacred person, and secured even from verbal injuries. Seeking a decision at law is called " inqiuring of God" (Exod. xviii, 15 ). The term "gods'' is actually applied to judges (Exod. xxi, 6; compare Psa. Ixxxii, 1, G). The judge was told, " Thou shalt not be afraid of the face of men, for the judgment is God's;" and thus, while human instrumentality was indispensable, the source of justice was upheld as divine, and the purity of its achniiustration only sank with the decline of religious feeling. In this spirit speaks Psa. Ixxxii — a lofty charge addressed to all who judge ; com- pare the qualities regarded as essential at the institution of the office (Hxnd. xviii. 21), and the strict admonition of Deut. xvi, 18-2(1. But besides the sacred dignity thus given to the only royal function, which, under the theocracy, lay in human hands, it was made popular by being vested in those who led public feeling, and its im- portance in the public ej-e appears from such passages as Psa. Ixix, 12 (corap. cxix, 23); Ixxxii; cxlviii, 11; Prov. viii, 15; xxi, 4, 5, 23. There coidd have been no considerable need for the legal studies and expositions of the Levites during the wanderings in the wilderness, while Moses was alive to solve aU questions, and while the law which they were to expound was not wholly delivered. The Levites, too, had a charge of cattle to look after in that wilderness like the rest, and seem to have acted also, being Moses's own tribe, as supports to his executive authority. But then few of the greater entanglements of property could arise before tlie i)eople were settled in their possession of Canaan. Thus they were disciplined in smaller matters, and under Moses's own eye, for greater ones. When, however, the com- mandment, "Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates" (Deut. xvi, 18), came to be fulfilled in Canaan, there were the following sources from which those officials might be supplied: 1st, the ex -officio