You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 18. Magistrates, (magistros,) “masters;” people learned in the law, who may assist the judges with their counsel in any emergency. Hebrew shotrim, “officers, heralds, lictors,” and so forth Calmet. 1:15. Bible.—Bonfrere (in Exodus 18:25,) thinks that these were the judges set over each tribe, or else the assessors of the judges. Menochius.—The Rabbins mention three tribunals of the Jews: 1. The Sanhedrim, consisting of seventy judges, with a prince at the head of them; 2. the twenty-three judges, who resided in considerable cities; 3. the tribunal of three judges, who administered justice in the villages, which had not above 120 inhabitants. But Josephus (iv. capt. ult.) only mentions, that Moses established in each city seven judges, who had each two officers of the tribe of Levi.—Gates, where the judges sat.