They were not obliged in common cases to ask advice of the ordinary rulers; it was sufficient if these did not remonstrate against the measures of the judge. In important emergencies, however, they convoked a general assembly of the rulers, over which they presided and exerted a powerful influence. They could issue orders, but not enact laws; they could neither levy taxes nor appoint officers, except perhaps in the army.
Their authority extended only over those tribes by whom they had been elected or acknowledged ; for it is clear that several of the judges presided over separate tribes. There was no income at tached to their office, nor was there any income appropriated to them, unless it might be a larger share in the spoils, and those presents which were made them as testimonials of respect (Judg. viii: 24).
They bore no external marks of dignity, and maintained no retinue of courtiers, though some of them were very opulent. They were not only simple in their manners, moderate in their desires, and free from avarice and ambition, but noble and magnanimous men, who felt that whatever they did for their country was above all reward, and could not be recompensed ; who desired merely to promote the public good, and who chose rather to deserve well of their country than to be enriched by its wealth.
(7) Exalted Patriotism. This exalted patriot ism, like everything else connected with politics in the theocratical state of the Hebrews, was partly of a religious character, and those regents always conducted themselves as the officers of God ; in all their enterprises they relied upon him, and their only care was that their countrymen should acknowledge the authority of Jehovah, their .In visible King (Judg. viii: 22, sq.; comp. Heb. xi).
(8) Character. Still they were not without faults, neither are they so represented by their historians ; they relate, on the contrary, with the utmost frankness, the great sins of which some of them were guilty. They were not merely deliv erers of the state front a foreign yoke, but destroy ers of idolatry, foes of pagan vices, promoters of the knowledge of God, of religion, and of moral ity; restorers of theocracy in the minds of the Hebrews, and powerful instruments of Divine Providence in the promotion of the great design of preserving the Hebrew constitution, and, by that means, of rescuing the true religion from de struction.
(9) Not a Complete History. The times of the judges would certainly not be considered so turbulent and barbarous, much less would they be taken, contrary to the clearest evidence and to the analogy of all history, for a heroic age, if they were viewed without the prejudices of a precon ceived hypothesis. It must never be forgotten
that the book of Judges is by no means a com plete history. This no impartial inquirer can ever deny. It is, in a manner, a mere register of dis eases, from which, however, We have no right to conclude that there were no healthy men, much less that there were no healthy seasons ; since the hook itself, for the most part, mentions only a few tribes in which the epidemic prevailed, and notices long periods during which it had universally ceased.
(10) Condition of the People. Whatever may be the result of a more accurate investigation, it remains undeniable that the condition of the He brews during this period perfectly corresponds throughout to the sanctions of the law ; and they were always prosperous when they complied with the conditions on which prosperity was promised them ; it remains undeniable that the government of God was clearly manifested, not only to the Hebrews, but to their heathen neighbors; that the fulfilling of the promises and threatenings of the law were so many sensible proofs of the universal dominion of the Divine King of the Hebrews; and, consequently, that all the various fortunes of that nation were so many means of preserving the knowledge of God on the earth. The Hebrews had no sufficient reason to desire a change in their constitution ; all required was, that they should observe the conditions on which national prosper ity was promised them.
(11) Chronology. The chronology of the pe riod in which the judges ruled is beset with great and perhaps insuperable difficulties. There are in tervals of time the extent of which is not speci fied; as, for instance, that from Joshua's death to the yoke of Chushan-rishatbaim (ii:8); that of the rule of Shamgar : that tween Gideon's death and Abimelech's accession (viii :31, 32) ; and that of Israel's renewal of idol atry previous to their oppression by the Ammon ites (x :6, 7). Sometimes round numbers seem to have been given, as forty years for the rule of Othniel, forty years for that of Gideon, and forty years also for the duration of the oppression by the Philistines. Twenty years are given for the subjection to Jabin, and twenty years for the gov ernment of Samson ; yet the latter never com pletely conquered the Philistines, who, on the con trary, succeeded in capturing him.