Of the officers holding under the chief executive there is no occasion to speak in great detail. The system of subordinate judges――lower courts――has come to view in the history of Jethro (Ex. 18). In Canaan they held their courts in the gates of large cities, and (for certain criminal cases) in the cities of refuge which were cities of the Levites――from which tribe judges seem largely to have been drawn. The “elders”――“heads of the house of their fathers”――held important responsibilities――a fact due largely to the influence of the patriarchal system which had come down from the earliest times, the usages of which, therefore, had essentially the force of common law in Israel. It was in great measure due to them that after the death of Joshua the processes of government went on without any chief executive, with no king, and with no Supreme Judge except as the High Priest may have performed that function. III. _The General Assembly or Congregation, and the Elders._ We read of great conventions, congregations, assemblies, in which it is not definitely said that _all the people_ were there; and also of convocations in which “all the people” were present. In some at least of the cases of the latter sort, the elders seem to have acted distinctly from the masses of the people, being the media of communication (as the case may be) between the Lord or his servant Moses of the one party and the people at large of the other. Thus shortly before the giving of the law from Sinai when God ratified a national covenant with the people, we read――“Moses called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together and said――All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Ex. 19: 7, 8). Moses spake to the people _through_ their elders. It was naturally impossible that any one human voice could be heard by six hundred thousand men.――――So in 1 Sam. 8: 4–10 “the _elders_ gathered together and said to Samuel, Make us a king;” “and the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto _the voice of the people_.” “And Samuel told all the words of the Lord _unto the people_ that asked of him a king.”――――These elders――chiefs of the people――seem to have been a well-defined class. Note how they are designated (Num. 1: 16); “These are the renowned [Heb. the _called ones_] of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.” Also Num. 16: 2: “Two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation” [Heb. the _called ones_ of the congregation, _i. e._ the men summoned to represent their constituents], “men of renown.”――――The question will arise whether these _called men_, the recognized heads and representatives of the people, held specially delegated powers; whether they were appointed for an occasion and were instructed by the people: or whether they held the headship, this representative power, by virtue