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Exodus 18:23-25
New English Translation
Exodus 18:23-25
New English Translation
23 If you do this thing, and God so commands you,[a] then you will be able[b] to endure,[c] and all these people[d] will be able to go[e] home[f] satisfied.”[g]
24 Moses listened to[h] his father-in-law and did everything he had said. 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.
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- Exodus 18:23 tn The form is a Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive; it carries the same nuance as the preceding imperfect in the conditional clause.
- Exodus 18:23 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.”
- Exodus 18:23 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.”
- Exodus 18:23 tn Literally “this people.”
- Exodus 18:23 tn The verb is the simple imperfect, “will go,” but given the sense of the passage a potential nuance seems in order.
- Exodus 18:23 tn Heb “his place.”
- Exodus 18:23 tn Heb “in peace.”sn See further T. D. Weinshall, “The Organizational Structure Proposed by Jethro to Moses (Ex. 18:17),” Public Administration in Israel and Abroad 12 (1972): 9-13; and H. Reviv, “The Traditions Concerning the Inception of the Legal System in Israel: Significance and Dating,” ZAW 94 (1982): 566-75.
- Exodus 18:24 tn The idiom “listen to the voice of” means “obey, comply with, heed.”
New English Translation (NET)
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