We have little more light as to this matter, so long as the government continued domestic, and the church in the condition of sojourners: But, when they were increased to a great nation, their civil, as well as religious government, was settled, by divine direction, under the hand of Moses, in the wilderness. The first form thereof, was a theocracy, in which God gave them laws in an immediate way; condescended to satisfy them, as to some things, which they enquired of him about; gave them particular intimations how they should manage their affairs of war and peace; and appeared for them in giving them victory over their enemies, in a very extraordinary, and sometimes, miraculous way. But, besides this great honour that God put on them, he established a form of government among them, in which they were divided into _thousands_, _hundreds_, _fifties_, and _tens_, Exod. xviii. 31. Deut. i. 15. each of which divisions had their respective captain or governor; who are, sometimes, styled the _nobles of the children of Israel_, Exod. xxiv. 11. And these governors were generally heads of considerable families among them; which were also divided in the same way, into thousands, fifties, and tens, in proportion to the largeness thereof; thus Gideon, speaking of his family, in Judges vi. 25. calls it, as the Hebrew word signifies, his _thousand_. And, in the same manner, their armies were divided, when engaged in war; thus when Jesse sent David with a present, into the army, to his brethren, he bade him deliver it to the _captain over their thousand_, 1 Sam. xvii. 18. and chap. xviii. 13. And we read, that Saul made David his _captain over a thousand_; which is the same with what we, in our modern way of speaking, call a commanding officer over a regiment of soldiers. Again, when David’s soldiers went out to war against Absalom, it is said, _They came out by hundreds and by thousands_, 2 Sam. xviii. 4. each distinct company, or regiment, having their commanding officer.