Strangers In The Land: Ger 024

Deuteronomy 1:9-16

“And I [Moses] spoke to you at that time, saying: ‘I alone am not able to bear you. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude. May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you as He has promised you! How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints? Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.’ And you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have told us to do is good.’ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes. 

“Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the ger who is with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’ And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.

What Does It Say?

 As is clear from the text, Moses is here reviewing some of the events of his time leading the Israelites, including when he instituted a system of judges.

Two interesting things here. First, the judges were chosen by each tribe. Deuteronomy doesn't describe a vote per se (and even if there was, it certainly would have functioned much differently from a modern democracy), but there was some sort of popular recognition that the men chosen were "wise and knowledgeable."

Second, I think it's important to emphasize that these men were chosen according to tribe. Each tribe was an extended family with a common ancestor. So even within the nation of Israel, rule was further subdivided by tribe, further subdivided into a thousand men, further subdivided into a hundred men, and so on in that fashion.

Many are familiar with this concept, but I think it's important that even though the Bible is adamant in its protection of the ger and the extension of civil and religious rights to them, this is within the context of a greater ethnostate. Imagine if instead of thirteen states, America had started with thirteen families (the Washingtons, the Jeffersons, etc.) and each one had been a separate political entity. You could vote for your government officers, but only a person from your extended family was eligible. A Washington would not be eligible to for office over Madisons.

Now, it's not clear from this passage if a ger could be made into a judge. It's also unclear where ger fit into the tribal system. The phrase "judge righteously between a man and his brother or the ger who is with him" indicates that the judges will mostly be deciding between either two members of the same tribe or a member of the tribe and a ger who lives in the area. Would a ger living in a city of Judah be counted as a Judahite? Would a Judahite ger be eligible to become a judge? It's unclear.

From my understanding, if you married into a tribe you became a member of that tribe. I can't remember any explicitly ger or half-ger judges. This is something I'll be looking for evidence for and against as we move forward.

Next: Deuteronomy 5