11. May Yahweh, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times more, and bless you as He promised you.
12. But how can I bear your troubles, burdens, and disputes by myself?
13. Appoint for yourselves wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will make them your leaders.
14. “You replied to me, ‘What you propose to do is good.’
15. “So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and set them over you as leaders: officials for thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and officers for your tribes.
16. I commanded your judges at that time: Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge rightly between a man and his brother or a foreign resident.
17. Do not show partiality when deciding a case; listen to small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.
18. At that time I commanded you about all the things you were to do.
19. “We then set out from Horeb and went across all the great and terrible wilderness you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us. When we reached Kadesh-barnea,
20. I said to you: You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.
21. See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and take possession of it as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.
22. “Then all of you approached me and said, ‘Let’s send men ahead of us, so that they may explore the land for us and bring us back a report about the route we should go up and the cities we will come to.’