Exodus 18

¹ Jethro priest of Midian, father-in-law of Moses, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, and how Yahweh had brought Israel out of Egypt.

² So Jethro, father-in-law of Moses, brought Moses’ wife Zipporah – after she had been dismissed –

³ with her two sons. One of these was named Gershom because, he had said, ‘I am a stranger in a foreign land’;

⁴ the name of the other was Eliezer[*a] because ‘The God of my father is my help and has delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.’

⁵ So Jethro, father-in-law of Moses, came with his son-in-law’s wife and children to the wilderness where his camp was, at the mountain of God.

⁶ ‘Here is your father-in-law, Jethro, come to visit you,’ Moses was told ‘with your wife and her two sons.’

⁷ So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowing low before him he kissed him; and when each had enquired of the other’s health, they went into the tent.

⁸ Then Moses told his father-in-law all that Yahweh had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for the sake of Israel, and all the hardships that had overtaken them on the way, and how Yahweh had rescued them.

⁹ And Jethro rejoiced at all Yahweh’s goodness to Israel in rescuing them from the Egyptians’ hands.

¹⁰ ‘Blessed be Yahweh’ said Jethro then ‘who has rescued you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh, and has rescued the people from the grasp of the Egyptians.

¹¹ Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all the gods…’

¹² Then Jethro, father-in-law of Moses, offered a holocaust and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to share the meal with the father-in-law of Moses in the presence of God.

¹³ On the following day, Moses took his seat to administer justice for the people, and from morning till evening they stood round him.

¹⁴ Observing what labours he took on himself for the people’s sake, the father-in-law of Moses said to him, ‘Why do you take all this on yourself for the people? Why sit here alone with the people standing round you from morning till evening?’

¹⁵ Moses answered his father-in-law, ‘Because the people come to me to bring their enquiries to God.

¹⁶ When they have some dispute they come to me, and I settle the differences between the one and the other and instruct them in God’s statutes and his decisions.’

¹⁷ ‘It is not right’ the father-in-law of Moses said to him ‘to take this on yourself.

¹⁸ You will tire yourself out, you and the people with you. The work is too heavy for you. You cannot do it alone.

¹⁹ Take my advice, and God will be with you. You ought to represent the people before God and bring their disputes to him.

²⁰ Teach them the statutes and the decisions; show them the way they must follow and what their course must be.

²¹ But choose from the people at large some capable and Godfearing men, trustworthy and incorruptible, and appoint them as leaders of the people: leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens.

²² Let these be at the service of the people to administer justice at all times. They can refer all difficult questions to you, but all smaller questions they will decide for themselves; so making things easier for you and sharing the burden with you.

²³ If you do this – and may God so command you – you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.’

²⁴ Moses took his father-in-law’s advice and did as he said.

²⁵ Moses chose capable men from the ranks of the Israelites and set them over the people: leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens.

²⁶ They were at the service of the people to administer justice at all times. They referred hard questions to Moses, and decided smaller questions by themselves.

²⁷ Then Moses allowed his father-in-law to go, and he made his way back to his own country.