1 These are the messages that Mosheh (Moses) spoke to Yisrael (Israel) back when they were in the wilderness on the eastern side of the Yorden (Jordan) river, in the desert plain opposite Suf between Paran and Tofel, Lavan, Hatserot, and Di-Zahav. 2 (It takes eleven days to walk from Horev (Mt. Sinai) to Kadesh-Barnea via Mt. Seir.) 3 Forty years after the Israelis had left Egypt Mosheh passed on to them everything that Yahweh had instructed him 4 after he’d defeated the Amorite King Sihon who lived at Heshbon, and Bashan King Og who lived at Ashtarot in Edrei.[ref] 5 On the eastern side of the Yorden river in the Moav (Moab) region, Mosheh began explaining those instructions, saying,

6 “Our God Yahweh spoke to us at Horev, saying: You’ve camped here long enough at this mountain. 7 Now, pack up and travel to the Amorite hill country and the surrounding areas and the river plain, the lowlands and the southern wilderness, the coastal plain, all of Canaan, and Lebanon as far north-east as the Euphrates river. 8 Listen, that area of land ahead of you, I’ve given to you. Go ahead and take possession that land that Yahweh promised to your ancestors Avraham (Abraham), Yitshak (Isaac), and Yakov (Jacob). He promised to give it to them and to their descendants.”

9 Then Mosheh said, “I told you at that time that I wasn’t able to govern all of you by myself 10 because your god Yahweh has multiplied you, and wow, now you’re as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11 May your ancestors’ god Yahweh increase you all a thousand times more and bless you all as he’s promised 12 but how could I possibly bear all your loads and burdens and disputes by myself? 13 So nominate some men from your tribes who I can appoint as your leaders—men who’re sensible and wise, and respected by the people, 14 and your parents agreed with that suggestion. 15 So I took those wise, respected men and appointed them to be your leaders—leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. I also appointed some as your tribal officials. 16 Then I instructed your new leaders telling them to listen carefully to both sides of disputes and make fair and honest judgements in conflicts involving either Israelis or foreigners. 17 Don’t show partiality when you’re making a judgement—treat important people just the same as the others. Don’t worry about what people will think because fair judgement is a godly activity. And if any matter is too difficult, bring it to me for a decision. 18 I also gave you all other instructions at that time.

19 “Then we left Horev (Mt. Sinai) and went through that wide and dangerous wilderness that you saw on the way to the Amorite hill country as our god Yahweh had instructed us, eventually arriving at Kadesh-Barnea. 20 Then I told you all, ‘You’ve all come to the Amorite hill country, which our god Yahweh is giving us. 21 Look, your god Yahweh has given you[fn] the land that’s in front of you, so go ahead and take possession of it as Yahweh, your ancestors’ god has told you. Don’t be afraid and don’t be discouraged.’ 22 Then you all approached me and suggested, ‘We should send some men ahead of us to scout out the place, and they can return and tell us the best way to get inside those cities.’ 23 That sounded good to me, so I took one man from each of the twelve tribes 24 and they went up into the hill country as far as the Eshkol valley, and the scouted it out. 25 They picked some fruit from there and brought it back to us, and reported that the land that our god Yahweh is giving us was very good.

26 “But your parents were unwilling to proceed and rebelled against your god Yahweh’s command.[ref] 27 So you all grumbled in your tents, saying that it was because Yahweh hated us that he brought us out of Egypt to hand us over to the Amorites to be destroyed. 28 You said that you all didn’t want to enter because the people were so tall and strong and their cities were fortified and powerful with very high walls around them.

29 “Then I told your parents, ‘Don’t be terrified or afraid of them. 30 Your god Yahweh who goes ahead of you, he’ll fight for you just like everything you saw him do in Egypt 31 and in the wilderness, where you saw how your god Yahweh carried you like a father carries his son—getting you through that difficult region until you all eventually arrived here.’[ref] 32 However, you all didn’t believe your god Yahweh[ref] 33 who had gone ahead of you to find a good place for you all to make your camp—using ifire at night to show you all the way, and cloud in the daytime.

34 “Yahweh heard those complaints and got angry and made this promise,[ref] 35 ‘None of the men of this evil generation will get to enter the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors 36 apart from Yefunneh’s son Kalev (Caleb)—he can enter it and I’ll give him and his sons the land that he scouted out because he followed Yahweh whole-heartedly.’ 37 Yahweh was also angry at me because of you all, and told me that I also wouldn’t be able to enter, 38 but that Nun’s son Yehoshua who was standing there in front of me, would be the one to lead Yisrael to possess the land.

39 “Your children that you thought would be taken captive, and your young sons who don’t yet know right from wrong, they’ll be the ones to enter the land, and I’ll give it to them, and it’ll become theirs. 40 But you yourselves need to turn around and go back into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.

41 “but they all answered and admitted, ‘Yes, we’ve sinned against Yahweh, but now we’ll fix that by going in to fight and do everything that our god Yahweh has commanded us.’ So every man strapped on his weapons—now thinking it would be easy to take over the hill country.

42 “But Yahweh told me to warn them not to go ahead and fight because he wouldn’t help them, and so they’d end up being defeated by their enemies if they proceeded. 43 So I told your parents that, but they wouldn’t listen—they rebelled against Yahweh and arrogantly marched up into the hill country 44 where the Amorites who lived there came out against them, and chased them like bees and made the warriors scatter in Seir as far as Haremah. 45 So your parents returned and wept in front of Yahweh, but he didn’t pay any attention to them. 46 So that’s why we stayed at Kadesh-Barnea for as long as we all did.

13 The following day, Mosheh sat down to judge the people, and the people stood around him from morning until evening. 14 When his father-in-law noticed everything that he personally did for the people, he asked, “What’s this that you’re doing with the people? Why do you sit there alone, and all the people position themselves around you from morning until evening?”

15 “Because the people come to me to find out what God wants for them,” Mosheh replied to Yetro. 16 “When a difficult situation comes up among them, someone comes to me and I make the judgement between a man and his neighbour. In addition, I help them understand the god’s statutes and laws.”

17 “It’s not a good idea what you’re doing,” said Yetro. 18 “You’re definitely on the road to wear yourself out, plus you’ll also wear out these people who are with you, because the responsibility is too heavy for you—you can’t just do it alone. 19 Now, listen to this: I’ll advise you and God will be with you. You be before God for the people, and you should bring their disputes to God yourself. 20 You should also teach them the statutes and the laws, and you should teach them the way they should live and the work that they should do. 21 But you yourself should search through all the people to find capable men who are godly and faithful, and not greedy for dishonest profit. Then appoint the best of them to be over a thousand households, and then others to be over groups of one hundred, fifty, and ten households. 22 They’ll be the ones to judge the people, except that every serious situation they’ll bring to you—they’ll judge every minor situation themselves. Yes, you must lighten this load off yourself, and they’ll share the load with you. 23 If you do that, and if God tells you to proceed, then you’ll be able to endure in the long term, plus all of these people standing around will be able to return to their tents peacefully.”

24 So Mosheh took his father-in-law’s advice and implemented all of his suggestions. 25 He chose capable men from among all the Israelis, and he appointed them as heads over the people: leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, and leaders of tens of households. 26 They became the ones who settled most disputes for the people. They brought the difficult cases to Mosheh, but they judged each minor situation themselves.

27 Then Mosheh bid farewell to Yetro and he returned to his own home.

13 ◙ 2 ◙ 3 ◙ 4 ◙ 5 ◙ 6 ◙ 7 ◙ 8 ◙ 9 ◙ 10 ◙ 11 ◙ 12 ◙ 13 ◙ 14 ◙ 15 ◙

16 ◙

17 ◙ 18 ◙ 19 ◙ 20 ◙

21 ◙ 22 ◙ 23 ◙ 24 ◙

25 ◙ 26 ◙ 27 ◙ 28 ◙ 29 ◙

30 ◙

31 ◙ 32 ◙ 33 [ref]◙

26 ◙ 27 ◙ 28 ◙ 29 ◙ 30 ◙ 31 ◙ 32 ◙ 33 ◙ 34 ◙ 35 ◙

36 ◙ 37 ◙ 38 ◙

39 ◙ 40 ◙

41 ◙ 42 ◙ 43 ◙

44 ◙ 45 ◙