²² Let them sit as judges for the people at all times; let them bring every important case to you but decide every minor case themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.^(A)

¹⁷ I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself.^(A)

¹⁷ You must not be partial in judging: hear out the small and the great alike; you shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s. Any case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’^{(A) 18} So I charged you at that time with all the things that you should do.

Marriage of Female Heirs

36 The heads of the ancestral houses of the clans of the descendants of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, of the Josephite clans, came forward and spoke in the presence of Moses and the leaders, the heads of the ancestral houses of the Israelites;^(A)

² They stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders, and all the congregation, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, saying,

³³ Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation.

¹¹ The Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name in a curse. And they brought him to Moses—now his mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan^(A)—

²⁶ And they judged the people at all times; hard cases they brought to Moses, but any minor case they decided themselves.^(A)

⁶ For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s agents, busy with this very thing.

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

⁸ “If a judicial decision is too difficult for you to make between one kind of bloodshed and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another—any such matters of dispute in your towns—then you shall immediately go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose,^{(A) 9} where you shall consult with the Levitical priests and the judge who is in office in those days; they shall announce to you the decision in the case.^(B)