"... the sketch given here has only scratched the surface in regard to the many ways in which justice was rendered and judiciaries were perceived throughout ancient Israel. A more detailed examination would require a consideration of the ways in which priests were sometimes also involved in adjudicating cases (e.g., Numbers 27:21; Deuteronomy 17:8-12; 19:15-19; 21:5; 2 Chronicles 19:8; compare Joshua 8:33; Jeremiah 26:11, 16; Ezekiel 44:24; Micah 3:11), how trials could be brought before the congregation at large (e.g., Numbers 35:12, 24; Joshua 20:6; compare Psalm 1:5), and how kings could sometimes function as the final court of appeal (e.g., 2 Samuel 14:4–11). Yet what is patently evident from this sketch is that at every turn God is portrayed as the judge par excellence, the source of law, the ideal practitioner of justice, and the one to whom those who have suffered injustice may appeal. A return look at the wide-ranging texts discussed earlier will illustrate the point. In Genesis 31, though an earthly tribunal made up of kinsmen of both Laban and Jacob is to arbitrate between the two litigants (Genesis 31:37), Yahweh is called upon to be an ever-present sentry watching between the two parties “when they are absent from each other,” that is, when one mistrusts what the other is up to (Genesis 31:49). Each litigant is to act justly toward the other party in realization that Yahweh is a “witness” between them, not in the sense of a witness testifying on behalf of the defense or prosecution but as a divine witness who superintends the ongoing process and to whom they swear allegiance (Genesis 31:50; compare 1 Samuel 12:5–6; 20:12) ..."