Worship and the nations
The Laws of the Hebrews
Blackwood’s Comprehensive Aids to the Study of the Bible · Vol. I, p. 62
The Jewish Commonwealth was founded on a religious basis. In form, it was a monarchy, with JEHOVAH for its unseen king; but in its substance, it was a commonwealth, in the strictest sense; the people enjoying equal rights, being all the children of God and united together as brethren.
On leaving Egypt, and in the first stage of their history, the Jews could scarcely be called a nation in the political sense of the term; they were a body of tribes, the main bond of union being the "promise given to the fathers." Each of these tribes had its own patriarchal government by the "princes" of the tribe and the "heads" of the respective families, but as yet no central government existed. In the second stage of their history, the constitution was essentially the same: Jehovah was their sovereign, and the laws that He had given to them were to be obeyed; the Judges were local and special deliverers raised up in seasons of great national need and distress. In process of time a king was demanded, and a social state longed for that would unify the people and consolidate them as a nation; the reign of Saul was an experiment in which the self-will of the king was constantly asserting itself against the will of Jehovah; the accession of David marks the establishment of the true Hebrew monarchy.
The political law of the kingdom was summed up in the one great duty of governing according to the law of God. The Princes of the Congregation, or the heads of tribes, seem to have always retained a certain power in the state. The chief provisions of the civil law of Moses may thus be classified:
The Law of Persons. The power of a father was held to be sacred over his children (Ex. xxi. 15-17). The first-born was to have a double portion of the father's inheritance. In default of sons, property might pass to daughters, if they married in their own tribe. The wife could never become independent of her husband. The laws of service and servitude—Ex. xxi. 1-6, 20; Lev. xxv. 10, 45, 46.
The Law of Things. The land belonged to God, and its holders were merely His tenants. At the jubilee all land that had been sold or alienated returned to the original owners. A house might be redeemed in a year, and if not then redeemed the title was lost, except in the case of Levites' houses. Debts were released at the seventh year, and tithes of all produce were required to be given for the support of the Levites.
In the Criminal law, the offences against God were specified in the first four commandments. Idolatry, witchcraft, blasphemy and Sabbath-breaking were severally condemned (Num. xv. 32-36). Offences against man are summed up in the other commandments: in the fifth (the commandment with promise), respect and regard for parents are enjoined; in the sixth, murder, cruelty and violence are forbidden; in the seventh, licentiousness is condemned, while the eighth forbids theft, purloining or perversion of justice; the ninth denounces false witness and untruthfulness, and the tenth condemns the sin of covetousness and all lusting after that which belongs to others.