4–11. This section has already been discussed in connection with xvii. 7–9, where see the head-note. Compare also the Introduction § 7, p. [li.]
⁴And Jehoshaphat dwelt at Jerusalem: and he went out again among the people from Beer-sheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back unto the Lord, the God of their fathers.
4. Beer-sheba] Compare note on 1 Chronicles iv. 28.
brought them back] Some further measures against idolatry seem to be meant.
⁵And he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, city by city, ⁶and said to the judges, Consider what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord; and he is with you in the judgement[¹]. ⁷Now therefore let the fear of the Lord be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts.
[¹] Or, in giving judgement Hebrew in the matter of judgement.
5. And he set judges] Compare verse 11 “also the Levites shall be officers”; and Deuteronomy xvi. 18 “judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates.”
In the earliest days justice was administered in Israel, as among the Bedouin of to-day, probably by all heads of families and (in difficult cases) by the one head who was distinguished above the rest for impartiality and for knowledge of tribal custom. In later days when Israel was settled in Canaan the “elders of the cities” and the “elders of the priests” exercised the same functions. The priests also at the great shrines, by their responses in matters brought for the decision of the Divine oracle, exercised an important part in the development and administration of law in Israel. In the monarchic period the King acted as a judge before whom difficult and important disputes seem to have been brought. His willingness to hear such cases (2 Samuel viii. 15, xv. 3 ff.) and his wisdom in deciding them (1 Kings iii. 9, etc.) evidently affected his authority and popularity to no small extent. In the present passage it is noteworthy that the King delegates this authority even in Jerusalem.
Jehoshaphat’s measures, as here described, are twofold, (1) to establish judges throughout the cities of Judah (compare Deuteronomy xvi. 18), (2) to establish (in accordance with Deuteronomy xvii. 8 ff.) a kind of court of appeal in Jerusalem itself.
⁸Moreover in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites and the priests, and of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel, for the judgement of the Lord, and for controversies. And they returned to Jerusalem.