9. Moses said to the people, “While we were still at Mount Sinai, I told you, ‘The responsibility for leading you is too much for me. I can't do it alone.
10. The Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
11. May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you increase a thousand times more and make you prosperous, as he promised!
12. But how can I alone bear the heavy responsibility for settling your disputes?
13. Choose some wise, understanding, and experienced men from each tribe, and I will put them in charge of you.’
14. And you agreed that this was a good thing to do.
15. So I took the wise and experienced leaders you chose from your tribes, and I placed them in charge of you. Some were responsible for a thousand people, some for a hundred, some for fifty, and some for ten. I also appointed other officials throughout the tribes.
16. “At that time I instructed them, ‘Listen to the disputes that come up among your people. Judge every dispute fairly, whether it concerns only your own people or involves foreigners who live among you.