One more change is noticeable in the pre-Babylonian period. The " princes" constantly appear as a powerful political body, increasing in mflueuce and privileges, and having a fixed centre of action at Jerusualem, till, in the reign of Zedekiah, they seem to exercise some of the duties of a privy councD, and especially a collective jurisdiction (2 Chron. xxviii, 21 ; Jer. xxvi, 10, 16). These " princes" are probably the heads of great houses in Judah and Benjamin, whose fathers had once been the piUars of local jurisdiction, but who, through the attracti6ns of a court, and probably also under the con- stant alarm of hostile invasion, became gradually resi- dents in the capital, and formed an oligarchy which drew to itself, amidst the growing weakness of the latter mon- archy, whatever vigor was left in the state, and en- croached on the sovereign attribute of justice. The employment in offices of trust and emolument would tend also in the same way, and such chief families would probably monopolize such employment. Hence the con- stant burden of the prophetic strain, denouncing the neg- lect, the perversion, the corruption of judicial function- aries (Isa. i, 17, 21 ; V, 7 ; x, 2 ; xxviii, 7 ; Ivi, 1 ; lix, 4 ; Jer. ii, 8 ; v, 1 ; vii, 5 ; xxi, 12 ; Ezek. xxii, 27 ; xiv, 8, 9 ; Hos. v, 10 ; vii, 5, 7 ; Amos v, 7, 15, 24 ; vi, 12 ; Hab. 1, 4, etc.). Still, although far changed from its broad and simple basis in the earlier period, the administration of justice had little resembling the set and rigid system of the Sanhedrim of later times. This last change arose fr8m the fact that the patriarchal seniority, degenerate and corrupted as it became before the captivity, was by that event broken up, and a new basis of judicature had to be sought for. See SANiiEnRUi.
IV. Judicial Customs.— W'l'Ch regard to the forms of procedure, little more is known than may be gathered from the two examples, Paith iv, 2, of a civil, and 1 Kings xxi, 8-14, of a criminal character ; to which, as a specimen of royal summary jurisdiction, may be added the well-known "judgment" of Solomon. Boaz appar- ently empanels, as it were, the first ten "elders" whom he meets " in the gate," the well-known site of the Ori- ental court, and cites the other party by " Ho, such a one ;" and the people appear to be invoked as attesting the legality of the proceeding. The whole affair bears an extemporaneous aspect, which may, however, be merely the result of the terseness of the narrative. In Job ix, 19, we have a wish expressed that a " time to plead" might be " set" (comp. the phrase of Roman law, diem dicere'). In the case of the involuntary homicide seeking the city of refuge, he was to make out his case to the satisfaction of its elders (Josh, xx, 4), and this failing, or the congregation deciding against his claim to sanctuary there (though how its sense was to be taken does not appear), he was not put to death by act of public justice, but left to the "avenger of blood" (Deut. xix, 12). The expressions between " blood and blood," between "plea and plea" (Deut. xvii, 8), indicate a presumption of legal intricacy arising, the latter ex- pression seeming to imply something like what we call a "cross-suit." We may infer from the scantiness, or, rather, almost entire absence of direction as regards forms of procedure, that the legislator was content to leave them to be provided for as the necessity for them arose, it being impossible by any jurisprudential devices to an- ticipate chicane. It is an interesting question how far judges were allowed to receive fees of suitors ; Michaelis reasonably presumes that none were allowed or custom- ary, and it seems, from the words of 1 Sam. xii, 3, that such transactions would have been regarded as corrupt. There is another question how far advocates were usual. There is no reason to think that, until the period of Greek influence, when we meet with words based on <jvv-
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fiyopog and TrapctK\7]roc, any professed class of plead- ers existed. Yet jiassages abound in which the jilead- ing of the cause of those who are imable to plead their own is spoken of as, what it indeed was, a noble act of charity ; and the expression has even (which shows the popularity of the practice) become a basis of figurative allusion (Job xvi, 21; Prov. xxii, 23; xxiii, 11; xxxi, 9 ; Isa. i, 17 ; Jer. xxx, 13 ; 1, 34 ; li, 3G). The blessed- ness of such acts is forcibly dwelt upon, Job xxix, 1 2, 13.
There is no mention of any distinctive dress or badge as pertaining to the judicial officer. A staff or sceptre was the common badge of a ruler or prince, and this they probably bore (Isa. xiv, 5 ; Amos i, 5, 8). They would, doubtless, be more than usually careful to comply with the regulations about dress laid down in Numb, xv, 38, 39 : Deut. xxii, 12. The use of the '• white asses" (Judg. V, 10) by those who "sit in judgment" was perhaps a convenient distinctive mark for them when journeying where they would not usually be personally known.