Hello Steve, thanks for taking the time to respond.

You said:

“I do not fault your logic, but does this mean that Judah had mob rule, like mobs of Muslims killing someone they thought disrespected the Koran? No formal trial is required, just a bunch of Hebrews and a pile of stones?”

Occasionally it devolved into this, yet even so they tried to adhere to the Law. Thus the encounter in John 8. Yes, it was a mob with stones, but they wanted their justice to be in strict compliance to the Law. That was how they hoped to trap Jesus.

Yet Jesus applied the Law better than they did, and so they went away.

The Old Testament speaks often of business conducted in the gates of the city. In walled cities and villages, the gates were the center of power. It’s where everyone entered and exited.

The village elders sat there to conduct business, including justice. People who had complaints or sought justice would take their matters to the elders at the city gates.