Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
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 Deu 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 ( Deu 1:13) and made them chiefs with judicial functions in the new national organisation which he now instituted: so in E, Exo 18:25, he set them chiefs over the people, as a whole.
captains of thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens ] Captains, Heb. sarm. So E, Exo 18:21; Exo 18:25. But neither there nor here is the meaning clear. Under the monarchy there were military sarm of thousands, hundreds, and fifties ( 1Sa 8:12 ; 1Sa 17:18; 2Sa 18:1; 2Ki 1:9 ff; 2Ki 11:4; Isa 3:3); that no sarm of tens are mentioned does not imply that they did not exist, for the notices of the others are incidental. Did such military sarm 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, Num 31:14; Num 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 Exo 18:13-26 deals throughout with the institution of judges this deuteronomic review, Deu 1:9-15, narrates the appointment not of judges but of military and administrative officers and that we reach the judges only in Deu 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 Deu 1:9-15, while in Exo 18:13 ff., where judges are intended throughout, the requirements are moral. But this point we have already answered above on Deu 1:13. Further Steuernagel’s explanation neither solves the difficulty in Exo 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 Exo 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 evidence that even under Moses the tribal institutions were welded into a national organisation is frequent and probable; and that main fact may be held, even if we allow, as equally probable, that E and D reflected back upon it the military titles of their own day.
and officers ] Heb. sh e rm, with the original meaning either of rangers, organisers (so Dri. after Nldeke, citing Ar. saara ‘to rule’ a book, ‘write,’ and sar ‘line’ or ‘row,’ cp. Heb. mishar, Job 38:33), or of writers (Ass. shatru ‘write’). Both meanings are attached to the name in the O.T. In Deu 20:5; Deu 20:8 f., as in E, Jos 1:10; Jos 3:2, sh e rm are army officers who pass on the general orders through the ranks; cp. J, Exo 5:6, etc., native officers of Israel under Pharaoh’s taskmasters. But here, as in Deu 16:18, they are associated with judges, Deu 29:10, with elders exercising judicial functions: cp. deuteron., Jos 8:33; Jos 23:2; Jos 24:1; and E, Num 11:16; Pro 6:7. Sam. has here scribes; LXX . They were either the secretaries or professional assessors of the lay judges.
according to your tribes ] So Heb. and Sam.; LXX , to your judges, which Berth. emends to judge you.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
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 him:
and made them heads over you; rulers of them, as follows:
captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens; see Ex 18:21
and officers among your tribes; which Jarchi interprets of such that bind malefactors and scourge them, according to the decree of the judges, even the executioners of justice; and so the Jews commonly understand them to be, though some have thought they were judges also.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ver. 15. So I took the chiefand made them heads Persons of the first rank, and who consequently were least liable to bribery and corruption, were appointed by Moses to their respective offices, and by him charged to a faithful and conscientious discharge of them. It is probable, that these officers had civil as well as military authority, and were a council of state in things relating to the peace and welfare of the public, as well as a council of war to direct the military affairs of the tribes, and command them as an army; for the princes of the tribes were chief military officers, Num 2:2-3 and these same were the persons who were to assist Moses, and whom he consulted when he did not summon the whole congregation, Num 10:4. And that they were not summoned only as a council of war, appears from Num 36:1 where the question in law, concerning the succession of females to inheritances, was brought before Moses, and the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel. And upon the whole, it is most likely, that the heads, or captains of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, were vested with civil as well as military authority; that the officers of lower command were the elders and senate of the cities; and that the officers of higher and more general command were the princes, elders and senate of the tribe or province. See Lowman’s Dissert. chap. 5:
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Deu 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. Zep 3:3
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I took. Compare Exo 18:21-26.
chief. Hebrew. sar. Compare Gen 32:28.
men. Hebrew. ‘ish. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I took: Deu 16:18, Exo 18:25, Exo 18:26
made: Heb. gave, Eph 4:11
captains over thousands: Num 31:14, 1Sa 8:12, 1Sa 17:18, 1Sa 22:7
Reciprocal: Exo 5:6 – officers Exo 18:21 – rulers of thousands Num 1:16 – heads Num 10:4 – General Num 11:16 – officers Num 13:2 – a ruler Deu 20:5 – the officers Jos 10:6 – mountains 1Ch 12:20 – captains 1Ch 15:25 – captains 1Ch 27:1 – captains Psa 58:1 – O congregation Isa 3:3 – captain Mic 5:2 – thousands Mat 21:33 – husbandmen Luk 20:9 – husbandmen
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 1:15. So I took the chief Not in authority, but in endowments for governing. And officers Inferior officers, that were to attend upon the superior magistrates, and to execute their decrees.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:15 So I took the chief of your tribes, {l} 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.
(l) Declaring what sort of men ought to have a public charge, read Exo 18:21.