BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

The Hebrew state in the time of Moses
[13] Finally, he ordered all men from the age of twenty to sixty to take up
arms for military service, and to make up their expeditionary forces from
the people alone.They were to swear allegiance not to their commander or
the high priest but to religion and God. They were therefore called the
forces or armies of God, and among the Hebrews God for his part [was
called] the God of armies. For this reason, in great battles, on whose outcome
depended either victory or disaster for the whole people, the ark of
the covenant went in the midst of the army, so that the people seeing their
king virtually present should ¢ght with all their strength.
[14] From these instructions issued by Moses to his successors, we
readily deduce that he chose people to be administrators of the state rather
than absolute rulers. He gave no one the right to consult God alone
whenever he wished, and consequently gave no one the authority he had
himself possessed of making and repealing laws, deciding war and peace,
of choosing both temple and state o⁄cials. All of these functions belong to
one who holds sovereign power.The supreme priest, for example, had the
right of interpreting the Law and transmitting God’s responses, not, like
Moses, whenever he wished, but only when requested by the general or the
supreme council or such like. The supreme commander of the army and
the councils, on the other hand, could consult God whenever they wished,
but could receive God’s responses only from the high priest.Thus, God’s
pronouncements in the mouth of the high priest were not decrees but just
responses; they gained the force of commands and decrees only when
accepted by Joshua and the supreme councils. This high priest, who
received the divine responses from God, neither controlled an armed force
nor exercised government by right; on the other hand those who possessed
territories by right had no power to make laws.
Both Aaron and his son Eleazar were chosen by Moses as high priest;
after the death of Moses, no one had the right to choose the priest, and
the son legally succeeded his father. The commander of the army was
likewise chosen by Moses, and assumed the role of commander not by
the high priest’s authority but by that conferred on him by Moses.
Hence, when Joshua died, the high priest chose no one in his place, nor 210
did the chiefs of the tribes consult God about a new commander. Rather
each chief retained Joshua’s right with respect to the armed forces of his
own tribe, and all collectively retained Joshua’s right regarding the general
armed forces. They only needed a supreme commander, it seems,
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