sent of the people.

II.

THE GROWTH OF CUSTOMARY LAW.

As this loosely associated group condenses into the tribe, all the
members of which regard themselves as descended from a common
ancestor, the organization becomes much more definite under a
patriarchal ruler. Soon through his activities these almost
instinctive habits, guided by rules, assume the nature of customs
that have a sanction, often of religion, practically always of
enforcement through the patriarch. No better illustration of the
crystallization of customs into laws can be found than that given
in Exodus 18:1-27 (_Hist. Bible_, I, 198-202). Moses sat all day
long as judge to decide cases for the people until his
practical-minded father-in-law, Jethro, seeing the waste of time
and energy of the ruler upon whom the welfare of the tribe
depended, proposed a wise plan. He advised that, instead of
rendering decisions regarding each individual case, Moses should
formulate the principles and leave their application to minor
judges appointed by himself as rulers over thousands and over
hundreds and fifties and tens. In modern days the law-making body
is distinct from the judicial. Is there any reason why the judge
should not be the maker of the law he interprets?

Doubtless many of the customs thus formulated by Moses had come
down through the preceding ages from the Babylonian and common
Semitic ancestors of the Hebrews. The most striking example of the
pre-Mosaic formulation of custom into law under the sanction of the
deity is found in the so-called code of Hammurabi, which comes from
about 1900 B.C. At the top of the stele which records these laws
this enlightened king depicted himself in a bas-relief as receiving
them from the sun god, Shamash. Hammurabi looked upon himself as a
shepherd chosen by the gods to care for his people. It was his
duty to see "that the great should not oppress the weak, to counsel
the widow and orphan, to render judgment and decide the decisions
of the land, and to succor the injured," in order that "by the
command of Shamash, the judge supreme of heaven and earth, justice
might shine in the land." Many of the principles laid down by him
are also found among the laws attributed to Moses which were
afterward codified in the early decalogues.

At times, though rarely among the Hebrews, we may study custom in
the making, as when in a new situation a ruler renders a decision
which henceforth becomes a law. Thus D