6. “When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain.
7. Break camp and move on. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the surrounding regions — to the Jordan Valley, to the hill country and the lowlands, to the southern region, and to the Mediterranean coast. Go to the land of Canaan and on beyond the Lebanon Mountains as far as the great River Euphrates.
8. All of this is the land which I, the Lord, promised to give to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants. Go and occupy it.’ ”
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.
17. Show no partiality in your decisions; judge everyone on the same basis, no matter who they are. Do not be afraid of anyone, for the decisions you make come from God. If any case is too difficult for you, bring it to me, and I will decide it.’
18. At the same time I gave you instructions for everything else you were to do.
19. “We did what the Lord our God commanded us. We left Mount Sinai and went through that vast and fearful desert on the way to the hill country of the Amorites. When we reached Kadesh Barnea,