4. After He had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth [and] Edrei.
5. Beyond (east of) the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying,
6. The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have dwelt long enough on this mountain.
7. Turn and take up your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the South (the Negeb), and on the coast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
8. Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.
9. I said to you at that time, I am not able to bear you alone.
10. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day as the stars of the heavens for multitude.
11. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you as He has promised you!
12. How can I bear alone the weariness and pressure and burden of you and your strife?
13. Choose wise, understanding, experienced, and respected men according to your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.
14. And you answered me, The thing which you have spoken is good for us to do.
15. So I took the heads of your tribes, wise, experienced, and respected men, and made them heads over you, commanders of thousands, and hundreds, and fifties, and tens, and officers according to your tribes.
16. And I charged your judges at that time: Hear the cases between your brethren and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger or sojourner who is with him.
17. You shall not be partial in judgment; but you shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.
18. And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.