Exodus 18:21-25

18:21 But you choose ¹  from the people capable men, ²  God-fearing, ³  men of truth, ⁴  those who hate bribes, ⁵  and put them over the people ⁶  as rulers ⁷  of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 18:22 They will judge ⁸  the people under normal circumstances, ⁹  and every difficult case ¹⁰  they will bring to you, but every small case ¹¹  they themselves will judge, so that ¹²  you may make it easier for yourself, ¹³  and they will bear the burden ¹⁴  with you. 18:23 If you do this thing, and God so commands you, ¹⁵  then you will be able ¹⁶  to endure, ¹⁷  and all these people ¹⁸  will be able to go ¹⁹  home ²⁰  satisfied.” ²¹ 

18:24 Moses listened to ²²  his father-in-law and did everything he had said. 18:25 Moses chose capable men from all Israel, and he made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

Deuteronomy 16:18

Provision for Justice

16:18 You must appoint judges and civil servants ²³  for each tribe in all your villages ²⁴  that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. ²⁵ 

Deuteronomy 16:1

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ²⁶  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ²⁷  he ²⁸  brought you out of Egypt by night.

Deuteronomy 23:4

23:4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired ²⁹  Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you.

Deuteronomy 23:2

23:2 A person of illegitimate birth ³⁰  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation no one related to him may do so. ³¹ 

Deuteronomy 19:8-10

19:8 If the Lord your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors ³²  and gives you all the land he pledged to them, ³³  19:9 and then you are careful to observe all these commandments ³⁴  I am giving ³⁵  you today (namely, to love the Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities ³⁶  to these three. 19:10 You must not shed innocent blood ³⁷  in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty. ³⁸ 

[18:21]  ¹ tn The construction uses the independent pronoun for emphasis, and then the imperfect tense “see” (חָזָה, khazah) – “and you will see from all….” Both in Hebrew and Ugaritic expressions of “seeing” are used in the sense of choosing (Gen 41:33). See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 220.

[18:21]  ² tn The expression is אַנְשֵׁי־חַיִל (’anshe khayil, “capable men”). The attributive genitive is the word used in expressions like “mighty man of valor.” The word describes these men as respected, influential, powerful people, those looked up to by the community as leaders, and those who will have the needs of the community in mind.

[18:21]  ³ tn The description “fearers of God” uses an objective genitive. It describes them as devout, worshipful, obedient servants of God.

[18:21]  ⁴ tn The expression “men of truth” (אַנְשֵׁי אֱמֶת, ’anshe ’emet) indicates that these men must be seekers of truth, who know that the task of a judge is to give true judgment (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 220). The word “truth” includes the ideas of faithfulness or reliability, as well as factuality itself. It could be understood to mean “truthful men,” men whose word is reliable and true.

[18:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “haters of bribes.” Here is another objective genitive, one that refers to unjust gain. To hate unjust gain is to reject and refuse it. Their decisions will not be swayed by greed.

[18:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “over them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:21]  ⁷ sn It is not clear how this structure would work in a judicial setting. The language of “captains of thousands,” etc., is used more for military ranks. There must have been more detailed instruction involved here, for each Israelite would have come under four leaders with this arrangement, and perhaps difficult cases would be sent to the next level. But since the task of these men would also involve instruction and guidance, the breakdown would be very useful. Deut 1:9, 13 suggest that the choice of these people was not simply Moses’ alone.

[18:22]  ⁸ tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive, making it equivalent to the imperfect of instruction in the preceding verse.

[18:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “in every time,” meaning “in all normal cases” or “under normal circumstances.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

[18:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “great thing.”

[18:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “thing.”

[18:22]  ¹² tn The vav here shows the result or the purpose of the instructions given.

[18:22]  ¹³ tn The expression וְהָקֵל מֵעָלֶיךָ (vÿhaqel me’aleykha) means literally “and make it light off yourself.” The word plays against the word for “heavy” used earlier – since it was a heavy or burdensome task, Moses must lighten the load.

[18:22]  ¹⁴ tn Here “the burden” has been supplied.

[18:23]  ¹⁵ tn The form is a Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive; it carries the same nuance as the preceding imperfect in the conditional clause.

[18:23]  ¹⁶ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive now appears in the apodosis of the conditional sentence – “if you do this…then you will be able.”

[18:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to stand.” B. Jacob (Exodus, 501) suggests that there might be a humorous side to this: “you could even do this standing up.”

[18:23]  ¹⁸ tn Literally “this people.”

[18:23]  ¹⁹ tn The verb is the simple imperfect, “will go,” but given the sense of the passage a potential nuance seems in order.

[18:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his place.”

[18:23]  ²¹ tn Heb “in peace.”

[18:24]  ²² tn The idiom “listen to the voice of” means “obey, comply with, heed.”

[16:18]  ²³ tn The Hebrew term וְשֹׁטְרִים (vÿshoterim), usually translated “officers” (KJV, NCV) or “officials” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), derives from the verb שֹׁטֵר (shoter, “to write”). The noun became generic for all types of public officials. Here, however, it may be appositionally epexegetical to “judges,” thus resulting in the phrase, “judges, that is, civil officers,” etc. Whoever the שֹׁטְרִים are, their task here consists of rendering judgments and administering justice.

[16:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “gates.”

[16:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”

[16:1]  ²⁶ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[23:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “hired against you.”

[23:2]  ³⁰ tn Or “a person born of an illegitimate marriage.”

[23:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “enter the assembly of the Lord.” The phrase “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[19:8]  ³² tn Heb “fathers.”

[19:8]  ³³ tn Heb “he said to give to your ancestors.” The pronoun has been used in the translation instead for stylistic reasons.

[19:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “all this commandment.” This refers here to the entire covenant agreement of the Book of Deuteronomy as encapsulated in the Shema (Deut 6:4-5).

[19:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today.”

[19:9]  ³⁶ sn You will add three more cities. Since these are alluded to nowhere else and thus were probably never added, this must be a provision for other cities of refuge should they be needed (cf. v. 8). See P. C. Craigie, Deuteronomy (NICOT), 267.

[19:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “innocent blood must not be shed.” The Hebrew phrase דָּם נָקִי (dam naqiy) means the blood of a person to whom no culpability or responsibility adheres because what he did was without malice aforethought (HALOT 224 s.v דָּם 4.b).

[19:10]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and blood will be upon you” (cf. KJV, ASV); NRSV “thereby bringing bloodguilt upon you.”