Exodus18chapter 18

This is the first court in Israel and it has one judge in it, with the people standing from the morning unto the evening. The cases themselves are never described, and chapter 17 has just recorded a battle with Amalek and the division of what came out of it. Jethro's question is about the shape of the arrangement rather than the rulings, why sittest thou thyself alone.

Moses describes two tasks, deciding between one man and another, and making them know the statutes of God, and his laws. Adam Clarke and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read that mention of statutes and laws, together with Deuteronomy 1:9 to 1:15, as evidence that the chapter sits out of chronological order and belongs after Sinai. Others keep the sequence as written, since Exodus 15:25 had already made a statute and an ordinance at Marah, before any law was given from the mountain. The chapter itself gives no date for the visit.

Exodus 18:17-18

The correction is delivered to Moses by a man outside Israel and outside the covenant, and it is blunt. The Hebrew at verse 18 doubles the verb, which Adam Clarke renders as in wearing away thou wilt wear away, and Jethro applies the wearing to the people standing in line as much as to the man on the seat. The chapter records no word from God prompting any of this, and it stands one chapter before Sinai.

the task is too heavy for you: Heavy is the word used of Moses' hands on the hill at 17:12, and it names a load one man's strength cannot hold. Moses uses it of himself at Numbers 11:14, where he tells God the people are too heavy for him to carry alone. Jethro saw it first.

Exodus 18:19-20

Jethro keeps two things in the hands of Moses and hands the rest away. Moses is to stand for the people to God-ward and bring the causes unto God, and he is to teach them ordinances and laws and shew them the way wherein they must walk. What goes to other men is the volume of ordinary cases, and what stays with Moses is access to God and the teaching of what God has said.

show them the way to live: Adam Clarke separates the two nouns, statutes for the precepts of worship and public order, and laws for instruction in right conduct. The way to live is the conduct of each day, and the work they must do is each man's duty before God. Deuteronomy 1:18 recalls Moses giving that teaching.

Four things are asked of the men chosen, ability, the fear of God, truthfulness and a hatred of covetousness, and three of the four describe character rather than skill. Deuteronomy 1:13 gives Moses' own account of the same appointment and has the tribes pick their own men, and Acts 6:3 puts the church under the same procedure when the apostles tell it to look out seven men of honest report. Gregory the Great built a chapter of The Book of Pastoral Rule on this passage, writing that Moses was reproved by a man of alien race for spending himself on earthly strifes with nothing left for teaching.

The plan sorts cases by weight, with every small matter settled below and every great matter carried up, and the stated aim is that they shall bear the burden with thee. Jethro then puts his own advice under review in the same breath he gives it, if thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so. He also names the destination as their place, which is the land, so a Midianite priest speaks of Canaan as Israel's home before Israel has a law.

Exodus 18:24-25

Moses takes the advice, and the text reports it in one line with no word from God on either side of it. The summary at verse 25 keeps ability and passes over the other three qualifications Jethro had named, while Deuteronomy 1:13 adds that Moses had the tribes choose the men themselves. Israel's judiciary begins from counsel given by a Midianite priest, and the chapter lets that stand without comment.

So Moses chose capable men from all Israel: The ranks of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens are the units of a mustered people, and Albert Barnes reads them as roughly matching Israel's military and civil divisions. Deuteronomy 1:15 adds officers to the ranks. That title belonged to the Israelite foremen whom Pharaoh's taskmasters beat at Exodus 5:14.

The report matches the instruction with one shift of wording, since Jethro said every great matter and the execution says the hard causes, which is the phrase Deuteronomy 1:17 uses when Moses recounts the charge he gave the judges. Then Jethro goes home, and the man whose counsel shaped Israel's courts is out of the camp before Sinai. Numbers 10:29 to 10:31 records Moses later pressing this same family to stay and be to us instead of eyes.