⁹“And I spoke to them at that time, saying,^w ‘I am not able to bear you alone. ¹⁰Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and look; you are today as the stars of the heaven in number.^x ¹¹Yahweh, the God of your ancestors,^y may he add to you as you are now a thousand times, and may he bless you just as he promised you.^z ¹²How can I bear you by myself,^a your burden and your load and your strife? ¹³Choose for yourselves wise and discerning and knowledgeable men^b for each of your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders.’

¹⁴“And you answered me, and you said, ‘The thing you have said to do is good.’ ¹⁵And so I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and then I appointed them as leaders over you as commanders of groups of thousands and commanders of groups of hundreds and commanders of groups of fifties and commanders of groups of tens as officials for your tribes. ¹⁶And at that time I instructed your judges, saying, ‘hear out your fellow men,^c and then judge fairly^d between a man and between his brother and between his opponent who is a resident alien.^e ¹⁷You must not be partial^f in your judgment; ^g hear out the small person as also the great person; do not be intimidated by any person,^h because the judgment is God’s; and the case that is too difficultⁱ for you, bring it to me, and I will hear it out.’ ¹⁸And so I instructed you at that time concerning all of the things that you should do.

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Footnotes

wLiterally “to say”
xLiterally “with respect to multitude/abundance”
yOr “fathers”
zLiterally “spoke to you”
aLiterally “to me alone”
bLiterally “men wise and discerning and knowledgeable”
cLiterally “hear between your brothers,” with the idea of listening carefully in this context
dOr “righteously”
eLiterally “between his resident alien/non-Israelite who dwells temporarily among Israel”
fLiterally “recognize faces”
gLiterally “in the process of rendering a judgment”
hLiterally “do not fear before the faces of any man”
iOr “hard”