ABSTRACT
The Mosaic constitution laid the foundations for the first Israelite polity, which was organized federally around a loose union of tribes, traditionally twelve in number. Thus, the basis for a tripartite division of authority between prophetic, priestly, and civil functions was set down through subsidiary covenants early in the biblical account of the history of Israel as a polity. The Sinai covenant is important for understanding the basic ties between the covenantal relationship and political structure. The Sinai covenant consists of two parts. The first establishes the first principles of Divine Law and human governance—what later would be termed the political compact—while the second translates those principles into a constitutional framework. The first constitutional epoch after the Exodus stretches from the founding of the Israelite tribal confederacy, the Mosaic regime, to the establishment of the monarchy. In ancient Israel, covenant mediator was a role principally associated with the keter torah.
