Deuteronomy 1:15

So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known,.... The principal persons among them, that were remarkable and well known for their wisdom and understanding, whom the people presented to

And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: I spake unto you at that time - a little before their arrival in Horeb.

The chief, not in authority, which yet they had not, but in endowments for good government. And officers; inferior officers, that were to attend upon the superior magistrates, and to execute their decrees.

Deuteronomy 1:15 So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.Ver. 15. And officers among your tribes.] That might put the laws in execution; which is the same to the law that the clapper is to the bell. There were in good Josiah’ s days’ horrible abominations. And why? By the slackness of under offices.

(9-18) In these words Moses appears to combine the recollection of two distinct things: (1) the advice of Jethro (Exodus 18), by following which he would be relieved from the ordinary pressure of litigation; (2) the still further relief afforded him by the appointment of the seventy elders. These last received the gift of prophecy, and were thus enabled to relieve Moses from some of the higher responsibilities of his office by representing his mind and reproducing his personal influence in many parts of the camp at once. Jethro’s advice was given on their first arrival in Horeb: when it was carried into effect we are not told. The seventy elder were appointed (Numbers 11) between Sinai and Kadesh-barnea, shortly after they left Sinai. It is quite possible that both institutions came into existence at the same time. The seventy elders would have been of great service in the selection of the numerous judges and officers who were required.

Verse 15. Captains over thousands, c.] What a curious and well-regulated economy was that of the Israelites! See its order and arrangement: 1. GOD, the KING and Supreme Judge 2. Moses, God's prime minister; 3. The priests, consulting him by Urim and Thummim; 4. The chiefs or princes of the twelve tribes; 5. Chilliarchs, or captains over thousands; 6. Centurions, or captains over hundreds; 7. Tribunes, or captains over fifty men; 8. Decurions, or captains over ten men; and, 9. Officers, persons who might be employed by the different chiefs in executing particular commands. All these held their authority from God, and yet were subject and accountable to each other. See the notes on Num. ii.

15. the heads of your tribes] LXX, from you, either represents the original Heb. reading or is the Gk translator’s emendation of a difficult text. On the ground that the present Heb. reading conflicts with Deuteronomy 1:13 and is meaningless in relation to the rest of this verse (it being unlikely that Moses would say, that he took heads of tribes to make them heads over you), some would delete the words. But the verse, though awkward, may mean that Moses took those elected within the various tribes (Deuteronomy 1:13) and made them chiefs with judicial functions in the new national organisation which he now instituted: so in E, Exodus 18:25, he set them chiefs over the people, as a whole. captains of thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens] Captains, Heb. sarξm. So E, Exodus 18:21; Exodus 18:25. But neither there nor here is the meaning clear. Under the monarchy there were military sarξm of thousands, hundreds, and fifties (1 Samuel 8:12; 1 Samuel 17:18; 2 Samuel 18:1; 2 Kings 1:9 ff; 2 Kings 11:4; Isaiah 3:3); that no sarξm of tens are mentioned does not imply that they did not exist, for the notices of the others are incidental. Did such military sarξm already exist in the time of Israel’s wanderings, and is it meant, here and in Exodus 18, that the popularly elected heads took such military titles on their appointment? Or were these military ranks first instituted under the monarchy, when an organised national army took the place of the old tribal levies, and have the writers of E and D (cp. P, Numbers 31:14; Numbers 31:28) merely reflected this institution of their own times back on the period of the wandering? Or are we to hold with Steuernagel that although Exodus 18:13-26 deals throughout with the institution of judges this deuteronomic review, Deuteronomy 1:9-15, narrates the appointment not of judges but of military and administrative officers and that we reach the judges only in Deuteronomy 1:16, where their title first occurs and where a new paragraph is indicated by the recurrence of the formula, and at that time? In support of his view, Steuernagel alleges that only intellectual qualities are required for the officers dealt with in Deuteronomy 1:9-15, while in Exodus 18:13 ff., where judges are intended throughout, the requirements are moral. But this point we have already answered above on Deuteronomy 1:13. Further Steuernagel’s explanation neither solves the difficulty in Exodus 18:13 ff. (E) where the equation of military titles with the judicial posts is certain; nor meets the fact that this deuteronomic review is based on Exodus 18:13 ff., and if it had meant to differ from the latter on so substantial a point it would certainly have indicated the difference explicitly. None of the explanations is satisfactory.

THE OF JUDGES AND THE OF THEIR DUTIES, Deuteronomy 1:9-18.For a more particular statement see Exodus 18:13-26, where it is said Moses adopted this plan at the counsel of Jethro.