Exodus 18:25 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And Moses chose able men— It is thought by some, that this constitution continued only during their peregrination in the wilderness; and so is different from the institution of those seventy elders (Numbers 11:16.) who were of God's own nomination, and continued to have their name, title, and authority through all the changes of the Jewish state: but, this tribunal of the seventy being a peculiar jurisdiction, I do not see why the subordinate rule here established might not have continued, in a great measure, the same when the people were settled in Canaan. It is certain that the Hebrew was a kind of military government. (See Lowman on the Civil Government of the Hebrews, p. 78, &c.) What we render rulers of thousands, is, properly, princes or commanders. Possibly our old Saxon constitution of sheriffs in counties, hundredors or centgraves in hundreds, and deciners in decenaries, was formed upon the model here proposed; and as these were subordinate each to the other, so was it, most probably, with the Hebrews. Those causes, which could not be decided by the judge of ten, were brought before the judge of fifty, and so on; and those which were too hard for the first subordinate ruler, the ruler of thousands, were brought to Moses: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, Exodus 18:26. We shall have occasion to speak more fully on the civil government of the Hebrews hereafter.