Deuteronomy 1:9-17

9“I spoke to you at that time saying: ‘I am not able to bear the burden of you by myself.

10Adonai your God has multiplied you—and here you are today, like the stars of the heavens in number.

11“‘May Adonai, God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times as many as you are, and may He bless you just as He has promised you!

12How can I bear your load and burden and bickering by myself?

13Choose for yourselves wise and discerning men, well known to your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.’

14“You answered me and said: ‘The thing you have said to do is good.’

15So I took the heads of your tribes, men who were wise and well known, and appointed them as heads over you—leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officials for your tribes.

16“I commanded your judges at that time saying: ‘Hear cases between your brothers, and judge fairly between a man and his brother or the outsider with him.

17You must not show partiality in judgment —you must hear the small and the great alike. Fear no man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me and I will hear it.’