God in emergencies, not like Moses, alone in his tent, or in the
tabernacle, but through the high priest, to whom only the answers of God
were revealed. (77) Furthermore, he was empowered to execute, and cause the
people to obey God's commands, transmitted through the high priests; to
find, and to make use of, means for carrying them out; to choose as many,
army captains as he liked; to make whatever choice he thought best; to
send ambassadors in his own name; and, in short, to have the entire control
of the war. (78) To his office there was no rightful successor - indeed, the
post was only filled by the direct order of the Deity, on occasions of
public emergency. (79) In ordinary times, all the management of peace and
war was vested in the captains of the tribes, as I will shortly point out.
(80) Lastly, all men between the ages of twenty and sixty were ordered to
bear arms, and form a citizen army, owing allegiance, not to its general-in-
chief, nor to the high priest, but to Religion and to God. (81) The army, or
the hosts, were called the army of God, or the hosts of God. (82) For this
reason God was called by the Hebrews the God of Armies; and the ark of the
covenant was borne in the midst of the army in important battles, when the
safety or destruction of the whole people hung upon the issue, so that the
people might, as it were, see their King among them, and put forth all their
strength.

(17:83) From these directions, left by Moses to his successors, we plainly
see that he chose administrators, rather than despots, to come after him;
for he invested no one with the power of consulting God, where he liked and
alone, consequently, no one had the power possessed by himself of ordaining
and abrogating laws, of deciding on war or peace, of choosing men to fill
offices both religious and secular: all these are the prerogatives of a
sovereign. (84) The high priest, indeed, had the right of interpreting laws,
and communicating the answers of God, but he could not do so when he liked,
as Moses could, but only when he was asked by the general-in-chief of the