be corrupted by Bribery From which Moses took care all Judges should be so free that he expresly requires they should be Men hating Covetousness XVIII Exod. 21. And Solon did not forget to make this a part of the Oath which every Judge in Athens took which is mentioned at large by Demosthenes in his Oration against Timocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I will receive no Gift upon the account of my Sentence neither I my self nor any body else for me nor others with my knowledge by any artifice or device whatsoever And made them Heads over you Set them to govern and rule the People as it is expressed v. 13. by deciding all Causes which were brought before them as far as they were able to understand them Captains over thousands and Captains over hundreds and Captains over fifties and Captains over tens It is a question whether they were Commanders over so many Families or Persons as I observed upon XVIII Exod. 25. Hermannus Conringius thinks they were Rulers as the word signifies over so many Fathers of Families understanding by a Family that which we now call an Houshold De Republ. Hebraeorum Sect. XVIII And Officers among your Tribes The same great Man in the XXVIth Section of the same Book takes Schotrim to have been Judges as well as the rest His great reason is because the Seventy Elders were ordered to be chosen out of them among others XI Numb 16. Now it is altogether improbable he thinks that such a Prophetical Colledge as that was should be chosen out of such mean Officers as the Hebrew Doctors make these Schotrim to have been But see what I have noted upon V Exod. 14. and XI Numb 16. And let me here add that if they were Judges and not Attendants upon them they were very mean ones being put below the Rulers of ten But howsoever this be it is certain some of these Judges had greater Authority then others being intrusted with a larger Jurisdiction and its likely greater Abilities were required in those over thousands than in those over tens As in the great Sanhedrim afterwards the Jews make more things necessary to qualifie Men for a Place in it then were requisite for those in lower Courts Where no Man could sit much less in the highest unless these seven things were remarkable in him as Maimonides saith Halacah Sanhedrim Cap. IV. Sect. 7. Wisdom Humility the Fear of God Contempt of Riches Love of Truth a good Fame and he was beloved also of others Ver. 16. And I charged your Judges at that time Verse 16 saying As the quality of their Persons and their Endowments made them considerable so they were dignified with the honourable Name of Schofetim and were also called Elders which had been a long time a Title of Honour among the Jews and in other Nations Hear the Causes between your Brethren This was a necessary quality in a good Judge to give Audience to every one that brought a Cause before him and not to delay any Man But the Jews infer from these words that it was not lawful to hear any Man when his Adversary was absent but both Parties were to be there present And they were also to be heard speak for themselves if they pleased Which was part of the forenamed Oath which Solon ordered all the Athenian Judges to take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will hear the Accuser and the Defender both alike And judge righteously The next thing required of a Judge was to be upright and impartial not considering what the Man was but his Cause This is implied in the following words Between every Man and his Brother i. e. Between one Israelite and another And the Stranger that is with you i. e. Between an Israelite and a Proselyte whether he were received into the Covenant by Circumcision or not For of this latter sort there were no doubt a great number amongst that mixt multitude who came with them out of Egypt XII Exod. 38. And while they were in the Wilderness there was not a distinct Court for Israelites and Proselytes but their Causes were tried in one and the same as Mr. Selden observes Lib. II. de Synedris Cap. III. N. 1. Verse 17 Ver. 17. And ye shall not respect Persons in Judgment Not be swayed by particular Affection or Interest but judge sincerely without respect to Relation or any Benefit or Injury received Ye shall hear the small as well as the great Be equally disposed patiently to attend to the Cause of a poor Man as of a great and to do him as speedy and impartial Justice See XIX Lev. 15. And here the Hebrew Doctors tell us of some singular Practices in their Courts to preserve the dispensation of exact Justice For if one of the contending Parties came into them richly clothed and the other poorly they would not hear them till both were clothed alike Nor would they suffer one of them to sit and the other stand but both of them either sat or stood And if they sat one of them was not permitted to sit higher than the other but they sat by each others side c. See Selden Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. XIII N. 10. Ye shall not be afraid of the face of Men. Courage and undaunted Resolution is another necessary qualification in a Judge who must not be over-awed by what any Man can do unto him but remember as it here follows that he is in God's place For the judgment is Gods God gave them their Commission by Moses so that they were his Ministers and acted by his Authority and therefore might be confident he would defend them in the discharge of their Office This shows that though Moses alone acted by immediate Authority from God yet these also being constituted by him were to be lookt upon as pronouncing Sentence in his Name who after a peculiar manner was the King and Supreme Governour of the People of Israel And the Cause which is too hard for you bring it unto me and I will hear it Another quality is Humility in not adventuring to judge of Things above their reach Some think there were certain Causes reserved to the cognizance of Moses as I observed upon XVIII Exod. 12. but the contrary appears by these words that all manner of Causes were brought before these Judges and they not the People brought such Causes before Moses as they found too hard for them to determine So that they not the Person whose Cause it was judged of the difficulty of the Cause See Selden Lib. I. de Synedris Cap. XVI Ver. 18. And I commanded you at that time all Verse 18 the things that ye should do As he rightly informed their Judges so he instructed the People also in their Duty before they went from Horeb by delivering to them the judgments which God commanded him to set before them XXI Exod. 1. contained in that and in the two following Chapters whereby both they and their Judges were to govern
makes it very probable that though there were Judges appointed according to the direction of this Law yet the exercise of their Power was often interrupted by the great Changes which were in that Nation and that there was no such Sanhedrim as the Talmudists describe till the Time of the Maccabees For the very Name of Sanhedrim plainly shews its Original to have been when the Greek Tongue was common among the Jews and that was when the Kings of Syria and Egypt who were of the Macedonian Race had the chief power in Palestine See Conringius in the forenamed Book Sect. XXXVII And enquire They were to lay the Cause before this high Court and desire their Opinion in it And they shall show the sentence of judgment They were bound to determine the Controversie and whatsoever Sentence they gave it was to stand good till it was reversed by other Judges of the same Authority For the Jews who understand all this of the great Sanhedrim and scan every Syllable with great nicety will have the words just before that shall be in those days to signifie that every Sentence must hold in the time when it is given So that if this Court determined a Matter which in after times by other Judges of the same Court should be judged otherways that second Sentence was to stand being the Opinion of those days For this Sentence was in their judgment the meaning of the Law by which they were all to be governed and if there was no Tradition in the Case they judged themselves as well as they could Verse 10 Ver. 10. And thou shalt do according to the sentence which they of that place That is the high Court which sits there or the Judge who is in those days Which the LORD shall chuse The Jews who understand this only of the Sanhedrim say it was not lawful for them to judge Causes at least not those which were Capital in any other place See Selden Lib. II. de Synedriis Cap. XV. N. VI VII X. Shall shew thee Shall pronounce And thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee Some phansie that he speaks to the inferiour Judges who brought the Cause thither to have the Opinion of this highest Court who were then to pronounce Sentence according to it But as the Persons concerned in the Controversie brought it before this Court when the Inferiour could not determine it so they gave the Sentence in which he requires the contending Parties to acquiesce and to do according to their determination Which did not concern questions of Faith as if Men were to believe whatsoever they should teach them but such Controversies as are mentioned v. 8. about Civil or Criminal Matters which they were finally to determine so that Men should not further controvert the Matter but rest in their Decisions For in all Governments there must be an end of Suits some where or other and God required all his People to submit to the Sentence of this Court. For so the words run in the Hebrew And thou shalt do according to the Sentence which they shall shew thee from the place which the LORD thy God shall chuse That is from the Supream Court of Judicature which resided where God himself did For if Men had been permitted to disagree to their Sentence the very end and use of this Court had been taken away as Maimonides speaks in his More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XLI Ver. 11. According to the Sentence of the Law which Verse 11 they shall teach thee In the Hebrew according to the Mouth or the Word of the Law which they shall teach thee That is according to the Interpretation which they gave of the Law And according to the judgment which they shall tell thee That is according the Order or Decree which they made thereupon Shalt thou do Pay suppose the Money which they judged to be due to another Man For he doth not speak of their doing whatsoever they bad them as if they could controll the Commands of God but of Obeying the Sentence of this Court about those Matters which were in question between one Man and another v. 8. who were not to be Judges in their own Case but rest in the Judgment of those whom God had made the Supream Interpreters of his Law Thou shalt not decline from the Sentence which they shall shew hee c. They were not to make the least alteration in their Sentence For though they might think it was wrong and the Senate perhaps did really err and be better informed afterwards which the Law supposes and in that case orders an Expiatory Sacrifice IV Levit. 13. yet it was not lawful for any Man to act contrary to their present Decree nor to teach the contrary whatsoever his private Opinion might be Verse 12 Ver. 12. And the man that will do presumptuonsly and will not hearken This they understand not barely of a private Man that would not stand to their Sentence but of an Elder or inferiour Judge who presumed to contradict it as Mr. Selden shows L. III. de Synedr Cap. III. Vnto the Priest It is commonly thought as I observed v. 8. that the Singular Number is here put for the Plural and that the meaning is If any Man would not hearken to the highest Court of Judgment which consisted commonly of a great many Priests he should die for his Contempt But they have a great deal of reason on their side who insist upon the Letter of this word Priest and of that which follows or the Judge understanding both of single Persons and take the High-Priest only to be here meant who seems to be described in the next words that stands to minister there before the LORD thy God For when God did not raise up a Judge to govern his People the High-Priest was the Supream Governour under God until the days of David and so they were after the Captivity Hence it is as Grotius observes Lib. de Imperio Summarum Potestatum circa Sacra Cap. IX Sect. 4. that COHEN is a name common to Priests and Princes For among a great many Nations anciently he shows the Priests had the highest power particularly among the Cappadocians Strabo who was of that Country saith the Sacerdotal Dignity was next to the Regal But howsoever this word be interpreted the Crime here mentioned was Contumacy in not submitting to the Sentence of the highest Authority whether it were vested in one Person or more whereby the Government was in danger to be broken and therefore God orders such a person to be put to death Or the Judge See before v. 9. Even that man shall die The Jews who interpret this as I said of a Judge in Inferiour Courts who presumed to contradict the Judgment of the Supream Court have tempered the Severity of this Law by several Explications and Exceptions Which have regard either to the manner of passing this Decree by the highest Court which an inferiour disobeyed and that
who had the Cognizance of Common Capital and Penal Causes in every City In the Gate Where the Court sat as I observed before upon XVI 18. And this may be added to what I noted there that by this may be explained those words in the Book of Job V. 4. concerning the Children of the wicked that they are crushed in the Gate i. e. lose their Cause and are Condemned in the Court of Judgment and those of the Wise-man XXII Prov. 22. Oppress not the afflicted in the Gate i. e. do him justice and not let him be overthrown because he wants Money to defend his Cause This appears to be the sense from the very next words v. 23. For the LORD will plead their Cause c. Ver. 16. And the damsels father shall say unto the Elders I gave my daughter unto this man to wife The Jews say the Mother had no power to espouse her Daughter but the Father only before she was of Age. Verse 16 Mischna Sotae Cap. III. Sect. VIII where Wagenseil notes that the Mother and Brethren also had some power in this matter but such that the Daughter within a time limited might make the Contract void And he hateth her Hath not the Affection which an Husband ought to have to his Wife If she had no Parents alive the Judges appointed her a Guardian and Josephus saith the next of kin were to Patronise her as if they had been her Parents Ver. 17. And lo he hath given occasion of speech against Verse 17 her See v. 14. He doth not add what there follows and brought up an evil name upon her i. e. accused her publickly before you of Adultery because it is sufficiently comprehended in this Saying I found not thy daughter a maid As such and such give Evidence And yet these are the tokens of my daughters virginity I have good Witnesses to the contrary which are here ready to be produced before the Court to disprove the former Testimony And they That is the Witnesses which the Father produces Shall spread the cloth before the Elders of the City Though such Tokens of Virginity as are commonly understood by these words might always be found in those Countries being very consonant to the Opinion of the chiefest Arabian Physicians as Mr. Selden observes out of Avicenna and of the Africans and other People at this day as many Authors testifie See Joh. Geusius de Victimis Humanis Pars I. Cap. IX and P. II. Cap. II. and Wierus L. Medicarum Observationum Sect. de Hymene especially in such Virgins as the Jews say were here meant who were under thirteen years of Age and though all that some Physicians and Lawyers in these parts of the World have said to the contrary is of no consideration yet there are weighty Reasons to incline us to think that no Man of common sense would bring such an Action against his Wife wherein he was sure to be cast whether his Cause was right or wrong if these were the Evidences whereby it was to be tried For if he accused her falsly he knew her Friends were able to produce the Sheet wherein they lay when they were married with such Tokens upon it as would disprove him and render him guilty of Defamation And if he had a just ground to accuse her because he knew they could produce no such Tokens yet this was no proof she had been vitiated since she was Espoused to him for she might have been corrupted before and then he could not attain his end which was to be rid of her not by way of Divorce for then he must have given her a Dowry which he was desirous to save but by having her put to death as an Adulteress which v. 21. shows to be the present Case Such evident Reasons as these have constrained the Jews to understand these words not according to the very Letter of them but figuratively of such Witnesses produced by her Parents as convinced the other of falsity so evidently that they made it appear as plainly as a piece of Cloth that is unfolded and laid before Mens eyes to view it And they think the Hebrew word Simlah which we translate the Cloth favours this Exposition For it never signifies a Sheet or a Linnen Cloath which is wont to be called Sadin XIV Judg. 12. XXXI Prov. 24. but such Cloth as Mens Garments are made of which commonly is Woollen not Linnen And so it is used in this Book X Deut. 18. and in this very Chapter v. 5. So that the sense is They shall produce evident proofs and lay them before the Court like a piece of Cloth which is spread for all that please to look upon it Whether this be the Truth or no I will not dispute but refer the Reader to Mr. Selden Lib. III. Vxor Hebr. Cap. 1 2. Ver. 18. And the Elders of that City shall take that Man Verse 18 If they were convinced that he had accused his Wife falsly he was to be delivered into the hands of the Officers who executed the Sentence of the Court. And chastise him Condemn him to receive forty Stripes save one as both Josephus and the Talmudists agree and it was to be done with a Scourge made of Thongs of an Oxes Hide The Woman was dismissed with a Solemn Benediction the Form of which is set down in the Jewish Rituals and as for the false Witnesses against her they were condemned to be stoned according to the Law XIX 18 19. Ver. 19. And they shall amerce him in an hundred Verse 19 shekels of silver and give them unto the father of the damsel Who was to receive this Satisfaction for the Reproach which was thrown upon his Family It is something strange that Josephus should mention only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fifty Shekels to be paid to her Father when the Scripture expresly saith an hundred Lib. IV. Archeolog Cap. VIII But it is supposed by some that he means fifty besides her Dowry which he was to have given her if he had put her away Which that he might save he designed to take away her Life and therefore was punished double to what it would have cost him if he had not been so wicked Because he hath brought up an evil report upon a virgin of Israel Laid the most infamous Crime to the Charge of an Innocent Virgin and that out of hatred to her and love to his Money For if he would have put her away according to the Law of Divorce no Man could have hindred him as Maimonides observes But then he must have paid her fifty Shekels which they take to be the Dowry of Virgins mentioned XXII Exod. 16 17. To keep which to himself and be rid of her he brought this Scandalous Action against her for which he was thus justly punished And she shall be his wife he may not put her away all his days Besides the two former Punishments in his Body and his Purse he was deprived of the common benefit which