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true ( Jer. 26:18–20), and Uriah, who had prophesied against the city
in the days of Jehoiaqim, who pursued him and brought him out
of Egypt in order to execute him (vv. 20–25). The ≤arim in charge
of Jeremiah’s trial decided that a prophet who was speaking in good
faith that God had sent him should not be punished ( Jer. 26:16).2.2.3 The prophets also had a role as intercessors, as Israel’s advocate
before God when God was angry ( Jer. 15:1; 18:20).^22 The prophet
was supposed to “stand in the breech” to protect God from destroy-
ing Israel (Ezek. 22:30). Eventually, they failed in the task. Prophecy
continued after the Exile, but ended after the Persian period.2.3 ≤arim
These officials (literally, “princes”) are first heard of in the story of
their appointment in Exodus 18, when Jethro convinced Moses to
appoint “princes of thousands, princes of hundreds, princes of fifties,
and princes of tens” (Exod. 18:21) to judge the ordinary cases and
bring the difficult cases to Moses. Samuel’s “rule of the king” warned
that kings would appoint ≤arimof “thousands and of fifties” to over-
see the people doing the king’s harvesting and plowing (1 Sam. 8:12).
1 Kings 4 preserves a list of Solomon’s ≤arim; these royal appointees
are primarily administrators, but administrators (from the king on
down) had judicial functions.2.3.1 The term ≤arappears together with “judge” in the hendiadys
“Prince and judge” (Exod. 2:14; Ps. 148:11) and in parallelism (Mic.
7:3). Micah indicts both the ro"“(Mic. 3:9) and the ≤ar (Mic. 7:3) for
taking fees for rendering judgment. The term ≤ar may indicate a
royal appointee, but one function is to judge cases. In this capacity,
they preside at the trial of Jeremiah ( Jer. 26). The ≤aralso appears
as part of the trio of the failed legal system: rapacious princes, reck-
less prophets, and priests who profane the holy (Zeph. 3:3–4)2.3.2 The “≤ar of the Town”
This title appears for town leader in premonarchic times ( Judg. 9:30)
and continues for a city official in the monarchic capitals of both
the North (1 Kings 22:26) and the South (2 Kings 23:8). The reform
of Josiah mentions a “city ≤ar” (2 Chron. 34:8), and two bullae have(^22) See Muffs, “The Prophet as Intercessor.”
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