Is over you; shall be your president to direct and assist you. In all matters of the Lord; in spiritual or ecclesiastical matters. The ruler of the house of Judah; either,
1. The prince, or chief ruler, under the king, of the tribe of Judah, which is called the house of Judah, 2 Samuel 2:4,7,10 1 Kings 12:21,23 1 Chronicles 28:4 Jeremiah 13:11 Ezekiel 4:6. Or,
2. The ruler of the king's house, which also seems to be called the house of Judah, 2 Chronicles 22:10, and more fitly the king's house of Judah, Jeremiah 22:6. And who so fit to manage the king's matters as the ruler of the king's house? For all the king's matters; for civil causes or controversies which might arise either between the king and his people, or between subject and subject, which may be called the king's matters, because it was a principal part of his office to see them justly decided. The Levites shall be officers before you; they shall be at your command to see your just sentences executed; which work was fitly committed to the Levites, as persons who might add their instructions to the corrections, and might work the guilty to an acknowledgment of their fault, and a submission to their punishment. And so this is an argument to encourage the judges to proceed courageously and vigorously in their work, because they had the Levites to stand by them and assist them. The Lord shall be with the good, i. e. shall protect and bless good judges in their doing of good and just things.