¹³ Provide wise, discerning, and reputable persons for each of your tribes, that I may appoint them as your leaders.” ¹⁴ You answered me, “What you have proposed is good.” ¹⁵ So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and reputable, and set them as leaders over you, commanders over thousands, over hundreds, over fifties and over tens, and other tribal officers. ^16 (A)I charged your judges at that time, “Listen to complaints among your relatives, and administer true justice to both parties even if one of them is a resident alien. ¹⁷ In rendering judgment, do not consider who a person is; give ear to the lowly and to the great alike, fearing no one, for the judgment is God’s. Any case that is too difficult for you bring to me and I will hear it.”

Judges. ^8 (A)If there is a case for judgment which proves too baffling for you to decide, in a matter of bloodshed or of law or of injury, matters of dispute within your gates, you shall then go up to the place which the Lord, your God, will choose, ⁹ to the levitical priests or to the judge who is in office at that time. They shall investigate the case and then announce to you the decision.^{(B) 10} You shall act according to the decision they announce to you in the place which the Lord will choose, carefully observing everything as they instruct you. ¹¹ You shall carry out the instruction they give you and the judgment they pronounce, without turning aside either to the right or left from the decision they announce to you. ¹² Anyone who acts presumptuously and does not obey the priest^[a] who officiates there in the ministry of the Lord, your God, or the judge, shall die. Thus shall you purge the evil from Israel. ¹³ And all the people, on hearing of it, shall fear, and will never again act presumptuously.^(C)

¹⁷ the two parties in the dispute shall appear in the presence of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and judges in office at that time,^(A)

⁵ The priests, the descendants of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord, your God, has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord, and every case of dispute or assault shall be for them to decide.

Appointment of Minor Judges. ¹³ The next day Moses sat in judgment for the people, while they stood around him from morning until evening. ¹⁴ When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he asked, “What is this business that you are conducting for the people? Why do you sit alone while all the people have to stand about you from morning till evening?” ¹⁵ Moses answered his father-in-law, “The people come to me to consult God. ¹⁶ Whenever they have a disagreement, they come to me to have me settle the matter between them and make known to them God’s statutes and instructions.”

¹⁷ “What you are doing is not wise,” Moses’ father-in-law replied. ¹⁸ “You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you. The task is too heavy for you;^(A) you cannot do it alone. ^19 [a]Now, listen to me, and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. Act as the people’s representative before God, and bring their disputes to God. ²⁰ Enlighten them in regard to the statutes and instructions, showing them how they are to conduct themselves and what they are to do. ²¹ But you should also look among all the people for able and God-fearing men, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain, and set them over the people as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.^{(B) 22} Let these render decisions for the people in all routine cases. Every important case they should refer to you, but every lesser case they can settle themselves. Lighten your burden by letting them bear it with you! ²³ If you do this, and God so commands you,^[b] you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people, too, will go home content.”

²⁴ Moses listened to his father-in-law and did all that he had said. ²⁵ He picked out able men from all Israel and put them in charge of the people as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²⁶ They rendered decisions for the people in all routine cases. The more difficult cases they referred to Moses, but all the lesser cases they settled themselves.

⁵ He appointed judges in the land, in all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, ⁶ and he said to them: “Take care what you do, for the judgment you give is not human but divine; for when it comes to judgment God will be with you.^{(A) 7} And now, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Act carefully, for with the Lord, our God, there is no injustice, no partiality, no bribe-taking.”^{(B) 8} In Jerusalem also, Jehoshaphat appointed some Levites and priests and some of the family heads of Israel for the Lord’s judgment and the disputes of those who dwell in Jerusalem.^{(C) 9} He gave them this command: “Thus you shall act: in the fear of the Lord, with fidelity and with an undivided heart. ¹⁰ And in every dispute that comes to you from your kin living in their cities, whether it concerns bloodguilt or questions of law, command, statutes, or ordinances, warn them lest they incur guilt before the Lord and his wrath come upon you and your kin. Do that and you shall not incur guilt.^{(D) 11} See now, Amariah is chief priest over you for everything that pertains to the Lord, and Zebadiah, son of Ishmael, is leader of the house of Judah in all that pertains to the king; and the Levites will be your officials. Take firm action, and the Lord will be with the good.”