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<p>Courts of judgment were ordered to be erected in every city (<a class="bibleref" title="Deut.16.18" href="/passage/?search=Deut.16.18">Deut. 16:18</a>), and they were empowered to hear and determine causes according to law, both those which we call pleas of the crown and those between party and party; and we may suppose that ordinarily they ended the matters that were brought before them, and their sentence was definitive; but, 1. It is here taken for granted that sometimes a case might come into their court too difficult for those inferior judges to determine, who could not be thought to be so learned in the laws as those that presided in the higher courts; so that (to speak in the language of our law) they must find a special verdict, and take time to advise before the giving of judgment (<a class="bibleref" title="Deut.17.8" href="/passage/?search=Deut.17.8">Deut. 17:8</a>): <i>If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment</i>, which it would be no dishonour to the judges to own the difficulty of,—suppose it between <i>blood and blood</i>, the blood of a person which cried and the blood of him that was charged with the murder which was demanded, when it was doubtful upon the evidence whether it was wilful or casual,—or between <i>plea and plea</i>, the plea (that is, the bill or declaration) of the plaintiff and the plea of the defendant,—or between <i>stroke and stroke</i>, in actions of assault and battery; in these and similar cases, thought the evidence were plain, yet doubts might arise about the sense and meaning of the law and the application of it to the particular case. 2. These difficult cases, which hitherto had been brought to Moses, according to Jethro’s advice, were, after his death, to be brought to the supreme power, wherever it was lodged, whether in a judge (when there was such an extraordinary person raised up and qualified for that great service, as Othniel, Deborah, Gideon, etc.) or in the high-priest (when he was by the eminency of his gifts called of God to preside in public affairs, as Eli), or, if no single person were marked by heaven for this honour, then in the priests and Levites (or in the priests, who were Levites of course), who not only attended the sanctuary, but met in council to receive appeals from the inferior courts, who might reasonably be supposed, not only to be best qualified by their learning and experience, but to have the best assistance of the divine Spirit for the deciding of doubts, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.17.9,Deut.17.11,Deut.17.12" href="/passage/?search=Deut.17.9,Deut.17.11,Deut.17.12"><span class="bibleref" title="Deut.17.9">Deut. 17:9</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Deut.17.11">11</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Deut.17.12">12</span></a>. They are not appointed to consult the urim and thummim, for it is supposed that these were to be consulted only in cases relating to the public, either the body of the people or the prince; but in ordinary cases the wisdom and integrity of those that sat at the stern must be relied on, their judgment had not the divine authority of an oracle, yet besides the moral certainty it had, as the judgment of knowing, prudent, and experienced men, it had the advantage of a divine promise, implied in those words (<a class="bibleref" title="Deut.17.9" href="/passage/?search=Deut.17.9">Deut. 17:9</a>), <i>They shall show thee the sentence of judgment</i>; it had also the support of a divine institution, by which they were made the supreme judicature of the nation. 3. The definitive sentence given by the judge, priest, or great council, must be obeyed by the parties concerned, upon pain of death: <i>Thou shalt do according to their sentence</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Deut.17.10" href="/passage/?search=Deut.17.10">Deut. 17:10</a>); thou shalt observe to do it, thou shalt not <i>decline from it</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Deut.17.11" href="/passage/?search=Deut.17.11">Deut. 17:11</a>), <i>to the right hand nor to the left</i>. Note, It is for the honour of God and the welfare of a people that the
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