1 About some controversies in the exact chronology, which do not change anything in our conclusions cf. G. Galil, The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah, Leiden, 1996, pp. 30–45.

2 W.F. Albright, The Judicial Reform of Jehoshaphat, Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, New York, 1950, pp. 61–82, esp. pp. 74–82.

3 We bring the translation according to the Revised Standard Version, but take into account the translation of Albright, as also some Hebrew terms.

4 I.e., in the religious affairs.

5 Possibly the term is identical with ʿšr ʿl habayīt “over the (royal) house (hold)” known from the OT and epigraphy. Cf. Y. Avishur, M. Heltzer, Studies on the Royal Administration in Ancient Israel in the Light of Epigraphic Sources, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 2000, pp. 70–81.

6 Here we see the division of the legal actions in to the “matters of the Lord”, i.e., sacred or religious matters, and “the king's matters”, i.e., civilian and at least a part of criminal matters.

7 On judicial, police and sometimes military functions of the šoṭrīm, M. Heltzer, Some Considerations about Hebrew šôṭēr and Punic mšṭr, AuOr, II, 1984, pp. 225–230. It is also very interesting that according to a tomb inscription from Volubilis in Morocco (ancient Mauretania), No. 5 of the Volubilis Museum from the end of the II cent. B.C.E., a certain Wytnkn was at the same time “the judge” - hšpṭ and “the šeṭr (neo-punic orthography). -J. Fevrier, Les texts puniques du musée de Volubilis, BAC, 1958, pp. 32–33.

8 S. Japhet, I and II Chronicles (A Commentary), Louisville, 1993, p. 779.

9 The differentiation between the “issues of the gods (te thiēid) and “the human issues (tʾanthrωpina) we find also in the Spensitias inscription from the late VI cent. B.C.E. from Littos (Crete) written in archaic Dorian dialect - R. Merkelbach, Die Rechte des lyttischen Spensitias, ZPE, 9, 1972, pp. 102–103; L.K. Jeffery and A. Morpurgo-Davies, A New Archaie Inscription from Crete, BM 1969, 4-2.1, “Kadmos” 9, pp. 118–154; also Y. Avishur, M. Heltzer, Studies on the royal …, pp. 44–46. Here the person receives the judicial rights on religious and secular affairs and they are divided in mentioning. In our case we have the division of persons dealing with religious and secular issues.

10 M. Weinfeld, Judge and Officer in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East, IOS, 71, 1977, pp. 65–88.

11 R. Deutsch, A Hoard of Fifty Hebrew Clay Bullae from the Time of Hezekia, in “Shlomo, Studies in Epigraphy, Iconography, History and Archaeology in Honor of Shlomo Moussaieff” (ed. R. Deutsch), Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 2003, esp. pp. 56–57.

12 The P.N. Maʾaśeyahu is a common one, widely known from the OT and Hebrew epigraphy.

13 Deutsch, pp. 161–162.

14 The seal was published by I. Ben-Dor, Two Hebrew Seals, QDAP, 13, 1948, pp. 64–66.

15 As špṭyhw, Yhwšpṭ, etc. appearing in the Old Testament and Hebrew epigraphy.

16 Cf. D. Parayre, Les cachets oust-semitiques à travers l'image du disque solaire aile (perspective iconographique), “Syria”, 67, 1990, pp. 270–301.

17 J. Naveh, A Hebrew Letter from the Seventh Century BC, IEJ, 1960, 10, pp. 129–139. The literature of this inscription is enormous but the first line has no other interpretations.

18 P. Bordreuil, F. Israel, D. Pardee, Deux ostraca paleohebreux de la collection Sh. Moussaieff, “Semitica”, 46, 1999, pp. 49–76. The text is published on pp. 61–75. Reclamation d'une veuve après d'un fonctionnaire.