⁹ “I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to bear the burden of you alone. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has multiplied you, and look, today you are as numerous as the stars of heaven. ¹¹ May the Lord, the God of your fathers, add to you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, just as He has promised you! ¹² How can I alone bear the weight and pressure and burden of you and your strife (contention) and complaining? ¹³ Choose for yourselves wise, understanding, experienced, and respected men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as heads (leaders) over you.’ ¹⁴ And you answered me, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.’ ¹⁵ So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and made them leaders over you, commanders of thousands, and hundreds, and fifties, and tens, and officers (administrators) for your tribes.

¹⁶ “Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the matters between your brothers [your fellow countrymen], and judge righteously and fairly between a man and his brother, or the stranger (resident alien, foreigner) who is with him. ¹⁷ You shall not ^[a]show partiality in judgment; you shall hear and pay attention to the [cases of the] least [important] as well as the great. You shall not ^[b]fear man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you [to judge], you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸ I commanded you at that time [regarding] all the things that you should do.