Jehovah had taken upon himself the function of king of the chosen people, and he dwelt among them in his palace-tabernacle. Here he was always ready, through his priest, to counsel them in mat ters of general interest, as well as in those hav ing reference only to particular tribes ; and to his court they were all required by the law to repair three times every year. Here, then, was the principle of a general administration, calcu lated and designed to unite the tribes into a nation, by giving them a common government in all the higher and more general branches of ad minis.tration, and a common centre of interest for all the political and ecclesiastical relations of the community.
It was on this footing that the law destined the government of the Hebrews to proceed, after the peculiar functions of the legislator and the con queror had been fulfilled.
The fact is, however, that, through the perver sity of the people, this settlement of the general government on theocratical principles was not car ried out in its proper form and extent ; and it is in this neglect we are to seek the necessity for those officers called Judges, who were from time to time raised up to con-ect some of the evils which resulted from it. It is very evident, front the whole history of the judges, that after the death of Joshua the Israelites threw themselves back upon the segregative principles of their government by tribes, and all but utterly neglected, and for long periods did. utterly neglect, the rules and usages on which the general government was established. There was, in fact, no huinan power adequate to enforce them. They were good in themselves, they were gracious, they conferred high privileges; but they were enforced by no sufficient authority. No one vvas amenable to any tribunal for neglect. ing the annual feasts, or for not referring the direc.
tion of public affairs to the Divine King. Omissions I on these points involved the absence of the divine protection and blessing, and were left to be pun ished by their consequences. The man who obeyed in this and other things, was blessed ; the man who did not, was not blessed ; and general obedience was rewarded with national blessing, and general disobedience with national punishment. The enor mities and transgressions into which the people fell in consequence of such neglect, which left them an easy prey to idolatrous influences, are fully re corded in the book of Judges. The people could not grasp the idea of a Divine and Invisible King : they could not bring themselves to recur to him in all those cases in which the judgment of a human king would have determined the course of action, or in which his ann would have worked for their deliverance. Therefore it was that God allowed
them judges, in the persons of faithful men, who acted for the most part as agents of the divine will, regents for the Invisible King ; and who, holding their commission directly from him, or with his sanction, would be more inclined to act as depend ent vassals of Jehovah than kings, who, as mem bers of royal dynasties, would come to reign with notions of independent rights and royal privileges, which would draw away their attention from their true place in the theocracy.' In this greater de pendence of the judges upon the Divine King we see the secret of their institution. The Israelites were disposed to rest upon their separate interests as tribes ; and having thus allowed the standing geneml government to remain inoperative through disuse, they would in cases of emerg,ency have been disposed to make themselves a king like the nations,' had their attention not been directed to the appointment of officers whose authority could rest on no tangible right apart from character and services ; vvhich, with the temporary nature of their power, rendered their functions more accordant with the principles of the theocracy than those of any other public officers could be. And it is pro bably in this adaptation to the peculiar circum stances of the Hebrew theocracy that we shall discover the reason of our inability to find any similar office among other nations. In being thus peculiar it resembled the Dictatorship among the Romans ; to which office indeed that of the judges has been compared ; and perhaps this parallel is the nearest that can be found. But there is this great difference, that the dictator laid down his power as soon as the crisis which had called for its exercise had passed away, and in no case could this unwonted supremacy be retained beyond a limited time (Liv. ix. 34) ; but the Hebrew judge remained invested with his high authority during the whole period of his life ; and is therefore usu ally described by the sacred historian as presiding to the end of his days over the tribes of Israel, amid the peace and security which his military skill and counsels had, under the divine blessing, restored to the land.