Мидраш к Дварим 5:2

(Deut. 16:18:) <YOU SHALL APPOINT> JUDGES AND LAW OFFICERS <FOR YOURSELVES>: JUDGES operate in courts, and LAW OFFICERS operate in the community.¹⁸Tanh., Deut. 5:2; cf. Sifre to Deut. 16:18 (144). R. Eleazar said: If there is no law officer, there is no judge. How so? When someone is found by a court to have a legal obligation to his companion, if there is no law officer who will collect from him when he withdraws from the judges, there is no power in the hands of the judge to do anything to him. If, however, <a law officer is present>, he delivers him into the hand of the law officer, and the law officer extracts compliance from him. R. Eleazar ben Pedat said: If it had not been for the law-enforcing office¹⁹Siteno, which is being read as sitero, as suggested by Jastrow, s.v. of Joab, David could not have enforced justice. And so it says (in I Chron. 18:14–15 // II Sam. 8:15–16): SO {DAVID}²⁰The only difference between the versions of Chronicles and Samuel is that the name DAVID, which Buber chooses to bracket, appears only in the Samuel version. ADMINISTERED JUDGMENT AND RIGHTEOUSNESS TO ALL HIS PEOPLE, WHILE JOAB BEN ZERUIAH WAS OVER THE ARMY. Were David and Joab judges? It is simply that whenever someone did not heed the judge, they delivered him into the hands of Joab, and he extracted compliance from him against his will. And so Joab said (in Job 29:16–17): I WAS A FATHER TO THE POOR…. I BROKE THE JAWS OF THE EVILDOER.