Reference: Government
Hastings
The purpose of this article will be to sketch in outline the forms of government among the Hebrews at successive periods of their history. The indications are in many cases vague, and it is impossible to reconstruct the complete system; at no period was there a definitely conceived, still less a written, constitution in the modern sense. For fuller details reference should be made throughout to the separate articles on the officials, etc., mentioned.
We may at once set aside Legislation, one of the most important departments of government as now understood. In ancient communities, law rested on Divine command and immemorial custom, and could as a rule be altered only by 'fictions.' The idea of avowedly new legislation to meet fresh circumstances was foreign to early modes of thought. At no period do we find a legislative body in the Bible. Grote's dictum that 'The human king on earth is not a lawmaker, but a judge,' applies to all the Biblical forms of government. The main functions of government were judicial, military, and at later periods financial, and to a limited extent administrative.
1. During the nomadic or patriarchal age the unit is the family or clan, and, for certain purposes, the tribe. The head of the house, owing to his position and experience, was the supreme ruler and judge, in fact the only permanent official. He had undisputed authority within his family group (Ge 22; 38:24; De 21:13; Jg 11:34). Heads of families make agreements with one another and settle quarrels among their dependents (Ge 21:22; 31:45); the only sanction to which they can appeal is the Divine justice which 'watches' between them (Ge 31:49,53; 49:7). Their hold over the individual lay in the fact that to disobey was to become an outlaw; and to be an outcast from the tribe was to be without protector or avenger. The heads of families combined form, in a somewhat more advanced stage, the 'elders' (Ex 3:15; 18:21; Nu 22:7); and sometimes, particularly in time of war, there is a single chief for the whole tribe. Moses is an extreme instance of this, and we can see that his position was felt to be unusual (Ex 2:14; 4:1; Nu 16). It was undefined, and rested on his personal influence, backed by the Divine sanction, which, as his followers realized, had marked him out. This enables him to nominate Joshua as his successor.
2. The period of the 'Judges' marks a higher stage; at the same time, as a period of transition it appeared rightly to later generations as a time of lawlessness. The name 'Judges,' though including the notion of champion or deliverer, points to the fact that their chief function was judicial. The position was not hereditary, thus differing from that of king (Jg 9 ff. Gideon and Abimelech), though Samuel is able to delegate his authority to his sons (1Sa 8:1). Their status was gained by personal exploits, implying Divine sanction, which was sometimes expressed in other ways; e.g. gift of prophecy (Deborah, Samuel). Their power rested on the moral authority of the strong man, and, though sometimes extending over several tribes, was probably never national. During this period the nomadic tribe gives way to the local; ties of place are more important than ties of birth. A town holds together its neighbouring villages ('daughters'), as able to give them protection (Nu 21:25,32; Jos 17:11). The elders become the 'elders of the city'; Jg 8:6,14,18 mentions officials (s
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And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou do.
and Mizpah. For he said, May LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another,
The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us. And Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Do thou think to kill me, as thou killed the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely the thing is known.
And God said moreover to Moses, Thus shall thou say to the sons of Israel, LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memor
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice, for they will say, LORD has not appeared to thee.
And Moses said to Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.
Hearken now to my voice. I will give thee counsel, and God be with thee. Be thou for the people toward God, and bring thou the cases to God.
Moreover thou shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating unjust gain, and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens,
And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the lower part of the mount.
then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door, or to the door-post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.
If the thief is not found, then the master of the house shall come near to God, [to see] whether he has not put his hand to his neighbor's goods.
And Israel took all these cities. And Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the towns of it.
And Moses sent to spy out Jazer. And they took the towns of it, and drove out the Amorites that were there.
And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand, and they came to Balaam, and spoke to him the words of Balak.
Thou shall make judges and officers for thee in all thy gates, which LORD thy God gives thee, according to thy tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates, then thou shall arise, and get thee up to the plac And thou shall come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days, and thou shall inquire. And they shall show thee the sentence of judgment. read more. And thou shall do according to the tenor of the sentence which they shall show thee from that place which LORD shall choose. And thou shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach thee, according to the tenor of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shall do. Thou shall not turn aside from the sentence, which they shall show thee, to the right hand, nor And the man who does presumptuously, in not hearkening to the priest who stands to minister there before LORD thy God, or to the judge, even that man shall die, and thou shall put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously. When thou have come to the land which LORD thy God gives thee, and shall possess it, and shall dwell in it, and shall say, I will set a king over me like all the nations that are round about me,
then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him from there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.
And thine eyes shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thy house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. And after that thou shall go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.
then the father of the damsel, and her mother, shall take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity to the elders of the city in the gate.
And Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher, Beth-shean and its towns, and Ibleam and its towns, and the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, and the inhabitants of Endor and its towns, and the inhabitants of Taanach and its towns, and
And the rulers of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thy hand that we should give bread to thine army?
And he caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of him. And he described for him the rulers of Succoth, and the elders of it, seventy-seven men.
Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of men were they whom ye killed at Tabor? And they answered, As thou are, so were they. Each one resembled the sons of a king.
And it was so, that, when the sons of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob.
And Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances. And she was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
But certain worthless fellows said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no present. But he held his peace.
And the king said to the guard who stood about him, Turn, and kill the priests of LORD, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and did not disclose it to me. But the servants of the king would no
And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder,
And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. And it was so, that, when any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him, and said, Of what city are thou? And he said, Thy
And king David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, Why are ye the last to bring the king back to his house? Since the speech of all Israel has come to the king, [to bring him] to
And king Solomon raised a conscription out of all Israel, and the conscription was thirty thousand men.
besides [that which] the traders [brought], and the traffic of the merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.
And the horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt. And the king's merchants received them in herds, each herd at a price. And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred [shekels] of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. And so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, they brought them out by their means.
And king Rehoboam took counsel with the old men who had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, What counsel give ye to me to return an answer to this people?
So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, [and] who dwelt with Naboth.
And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, according as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them.
And the king said to Hazael, Take a present in thy hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of LORD by him, saying, Shall I recover of this sickness?
And in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him into the house of LORD. And he made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house o
And Jehoiada made a covenant between LORD and the king and the people, that they should be LORD's people; between the king also and the people.
And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah.
And Hezekiah gave [him] all the silver that was found in the house of LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house.
But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against king Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.
Of these, twenty-four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of LORD. And six thousand were officers and judges,
Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons were for the outer business over Israel, for officers and judges.
And he set judges in the land throughout all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, Consider what ye do. For ye judge not for man, but for LORD, and [he is] with you in the judgment. read more. Now therefore let the fear of LORD be upon you. Take heed and do it. For there is no iniquity with LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes. Moreover in Jerusalem Jehoshaphat set from the Levites and the priests, and from the heads of the fathers of Israel for the judgment of LORD, and for controversies. And they returned to Jerusalem. And he charged them, saying, Thus ye shall do in the fear of LORD, faithfully, and with a perfect heart. And whenever any controversy shall come to you from your brothers who dwell in their cities, between blood and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and ordinances, ye shall warn them, that they not be guilty towards LORD, a And, behold, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters of LORD, and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, in all the king's matters. The Levites shall also be officers before you. Deal courageously
At the same time Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, and Shethar-bozenai, and their companions, came to them, and said thus to them, Who gave you a decree to build this house, and to finish this wall?
Then we asked those elders, and said to them thus: Who gave you a decree to build this house, and to finish this wall?
Let the work of this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in its place.
And that whoever did not come within three days, according to the counsel of the rulers and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the assembly of the captivity.
Let now our rulers be appointed for all the assembly, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce
And the rulers did not know where I went, or what I did, neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the ranking men, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest who did the work.
Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, [that is], twelve years, I and my brothers have not eaten the bre
And Pethahiah the son of Meshezabel, of the sons of Zerah the son of Judah, was at the king's hand in all matters concerning the people.
And even these reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up of wine. They stagger with strong drink; they err in vision; they stumble in judgment.
Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll, but he would not hear them.
And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of lord LORD fell there upon me.
Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me, and sat before me.
And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth [month], the tenth [day] of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of LORD, and sat before me.
And in a controversy they shall stand to judge. They shall judge it according to my ordinances. And they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed feasts, and they shall hallow my Sabbaths.
The lion has roared, who will not fear? Lord LORD has spoken, who can but prophesy?
Hear this word, ye cows of Bashan, who are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their lords, Bring, and let us drink.
And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places, yet ye have not returned to me, says LORD.
Thus lord LORD showed me: And, behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.
But I say to you, that every man who is angry at his brother without cause will be liable to the judgment, and whoever speaks an insult to his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says, Foolish man, will be liable to
And in the church God has placed men who are first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, kinds of tongues.