2 Chronicles 19:5

And he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, city by city,

He set judges in the land. There had been judicial courts established at an early period. But Jehoshaphat was the first king who modified these institutions according to the circumstances of the now fragmentary kingdom of Judah. He fixed local courts in each of the fortified cities, these being the provincial capitals of every district (see the note at Deuteronomy 16:18).