This denotes the collection of revenue, either in money or in kind, for the maintenance of the court and the royal household. The office must have been one of importance, for in two cases (vs. 11, 15) the holders were married into the royal house. The districts over which the officers had jurisdiction were not in alignment with the twelve tribes, owing no doubt in part to the fact that by this time much of the early tribal division of the land had become obsolete. Their number, twelve, has no relationship to the twelve tribes, but to the twelve months of the year, in each of which one of the officers was responsible for supplying his quota of the royal dues.