Deuteronomy 1:5-16
English Standard Version
Chapter 1
5Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, 6"The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’
9"At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself.
10The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven.
11May 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!
12How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife?
13Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.’
14And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’
15So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes.
16And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him.
