Exodus 18:13-27

13The next day, Moses sat down to judge people who had quarrels against each other. From morning until evening, people were coming to him with their quarrels.

14Jethro saw all these things that Moses did to help the people. So he said, ‘You are trying to do too much! Why do you sit there alone to judge all these people during the whole day?’

15Moses answered Jethro, ‘The people come to me to discover what God says.

16When they quarrel, they come to me to decide who is right. I tell them what God's laws and commands teach.’

17Jethro replied, ‘The thing that you are doing is not good.

18You will become too tired. The people who come to you will also become tired. You cannot do all this work alone.

19Now listen to me! I will tell you what I think will help you. God will take care of you. When people have quarrels, you must continue to speak to God on their behalf.

20You are the person who must teach them God's laws and commands. You must show them how they should live and what they must do.

21But you must also choose some other clever men to help you. They must be honest men who respect God. They must not want to take money from people. Choose these men to be officers with authority over groups of the people. They will be leaders of 1,000 people, or 100 people, or 50 people, or 10 people.

22They will be able to work as judges for the people, every day. They can decide the small quarrels. But if there is a difficult problem, they must bring it to you. That will make your work easier, because they will help you with the work.

23If you agree with my idea, and if God commands you to do it, it will help you. The work will not be too hard for you. And all these people will go home happily.’

24Moses listened to Jethro and he did everything that Jethro had said.

25Moses chose wise men from all the Israelites. He made them officers to lead 1,000 people, or 100 people, or 50 people, or 10 people.

26They worked as judges for the people at all times. If there was a difficult problem, they took it to Moses for him to decide. But they themselves decided the small problems.

27Then Moses said ‘goodbye’ to his wife's father, Jethro. Jethro returned to his own country.