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
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And it happened at that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, God is with you in all that you do.
and Watchtower, for he said, Jehovah watch between you and me when we are absent from one 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.
Let their anger be cursed, 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 you as a man, a ruler and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.
And God said to Moses again, You shall say this to the sons of Israel, Jehovah 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 title from generation to generation.
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me nor listen to my voice. For they will say, Jehovah has not appeared to you.
And Moses said to Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out to fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.
And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to inquire of God.
Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you. You be for the people toward God, that you may bring the causes to God.
And you shall look 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, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood at the lower part of the mountain.
his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also 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 be brought to the judges, whether he has put his hand to his neighbor's goods.
And Israel took all these cities. And Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites in Heshbon, and in all its villages.
And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took its villages and drove out the Amorites who were there.
And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian pulled up stakes with the rewards of divination in their hand. And they came to Balaam and spoke the words of Balak to him.
You shall appoint judges and officers for yourself in all your gates which Jehovah your God gives you, tribe by tribe. And they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
If a matter is too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, matters of strife within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which Jehovah your God shall choose. And you shall come to the priests of the Levites, and to the judge that shall be in those days, and ask. And they shall declare to you the sentence of judgment. read more. And you shall do according to the sentence which they declare to you from that place which Jehovah shall choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they tell you. According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach you and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand or the left. And the man that acts proudly and will not listen to the priest who stands to minister there before Jehovah your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. And you shall put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear and fear, and not be presumptuous any more. When you come to the land which Jehovah your God gives you, and shall possess it and shall live in it and shall say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations around me,
then the elders of his city shall send and bring him away from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood so that he may die.
And your eye shall not pity. Life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
And she shall put off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and shall sorrow for her father and her mother a full month. And after that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
then shall the father of the girl, and her mother, take and bring tokens of the girl'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 those who lived in Dor and its towns, and those who lived in Endor and its towns, and those who lived in Taanach and its towns, and those who lived in Megiddo and its towns, even three regions.
And the rulers of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, so that we should give bread to your army?
And he caught a young man of the men of Succoth and asked of him. And he described to him the rulers of Succoth, and its elders, seventy-seven men.
And he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, How were the men whom you killed in Tabor? And they answered, As you are, so they. Each one resembled the sons of a king.
And when the sons of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah out of the land of Tob.
And Jephthah came to Mizpeh 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.
And we shall be, also we, like all the nations, so that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.
But the sons of Belial said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him and brought him no present. But he was silent.
And the king said to the guard that stood around him, Turn and kill the priests of Jehovah, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not reveal it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall on the priests of Jehovah.
And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army. And Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder.
And it happened in the morning, 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, if any man had a suit to come before the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him and said, What city are you from? And he said, Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel.
And King David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? For the word of all Israel has come to the king, to his house.
And King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel. And the labor force was thirty thousand men.
apart from the merchant men, and and from the traffic of the traders, and from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the lands.
And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and out of Kue. The king's merchants received them from Kue 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 talked with the old men who had stood before Solomon his father while he still lived, and said, How do you advise to return a word to this people?
And she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles in his city, dwelling with Naboth.
And the men of his city, the elders and the nobles who lived in his city did as Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them.
And the king said to Hazael, Take a present in your hand and go to meet the man of God, and ask of Jehovah by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease?
And in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and brought the rulers over hundreds, with the commanders and the guards, and brought them to him into the house of Jehovah. And he made a covenant with them and took an oath from them in the house of Jehovah, and revealed to them the king's son.
And Jehoiada made a covenant between Jehovah and the king and the people, that they should be the people of Jehovah; also between the king and the people.
And all the people of Judah took Azariah who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
And Hezekiah gave him all the silver which was found in the house of Jehovah and in the treasures of the king's house.
And the people of the land killed all those who had plotted against King Amon. And the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.
Of these, twenty-four thousand were to set forward the work of the house of Jehovah, and six thousand officers and judges.
Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons were for the outward business over Israel, for officers and judges.
And he set judges in the land, in all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city. And he said to the judges, Take heed what you do. For you do not judge for man, but for Jehovah, who is with you in the judgment. read more. And now let the fear of Jehovah be on you. Be careful and act wisely, for there is no iniquity with Jehovah our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts. And Jehoshaphat set some of the Levites and of the priests and of the chief of the fathers of Israel in Jerusalem for the judgment of Jehovah, and for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem. And he charged them, saying, And you shall act in the fear of Jehovah, faithfully, and with a perfect heart. And whatever cause shall come to you from your brothers that dwell in their cities, between blood and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and judgments, you shall even warn them so that they do not sin against Jehovah, and wrath come on you and your brothers. Do this and you shall not sin. And behold, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters of Jehovah. And Zebadiah the son of Ishmael is the ruler of the house of Judah for all the king's matters. Also the Levites shall be officers before you. Take courage and act, and Jehovah shall be with the good.
At the same time Tatnai, governor of the province Beyond the River, and Shethar-boznai, and their companions, came to them and said this to them Who has commanded you to build this house and to make this wall?
Then we asked those elders and said this to them, Who commanded you to build this house and to make these walls?
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 who ever would not come within three days, according to the advice of the rulers and the elders, all he owned would be lost, and he himself separated from the congregation of the exiles.
And let our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all those who have taken strange women in our cities, come at a set time, and with them the elders of every city and its judges, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter has turned from us.
And the rulers did not know where I had gone, nor what I was doing. Nor had I told the Jews as yet, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.
And from the time that I was chosen to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, I and my brothers have not eaten the bread of the governor.
And Pethahiah the son of Meshezabeel, of the sons of Zerah the son of Judah, was at the king's hand in all matters concerning the people.
But they also have sinned through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have sinned through drink; they are swallowed up by wine; they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
But Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had pleaded with the king that he should not burn the scroll, but he would not hear them.
And it was in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me. And the hand of the Lord Jehovah fell on me there.
And some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me.
And it happened in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth of the month, some of the elders of Israel came to ask of Jehovah, and sat before me.
And in a dispute they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to My judgments. And they shall keep My Laws and My statutes in all My assemblies, and they shall keep My sabbaths holy.
The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord Jehovah has spoken; who will not prophesy?
Hear this Word, cows of Bashan who are in the mountain of Samaria; who press down the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, Bring in, that we may drink.
And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, and you have not returned to Me, says Jehovah.
The Lord Jehovah made me see this: And behold, He is forming locusts at the beginning of the coming up of the late grass; even behold, the late grass after the king's mowings.
But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be liable to the judgment. And whoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be liable to the sanhedrin; but whoever shall say, Fool! shall be liable to be thrown into the fire of hell.
And God set some in the church, firstly, apostles; secondly, prophets; thirdly, teachers, then works of power, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, kinds of languages.