King James Version › Exodus › 18

Exodus

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1 When Jethro, the priest of Mid­i­an, Moses' fa­ther in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Is­rael his peo­ple, and that the LORD had brought Is­rael out of Egypt; 2 Then Jethro, Moses' fa­ther in law, took Zip­po­rah, Moses' wife, af­ter he had sent her back, 3 And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Ger­shom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land: 4 And the name of the oth­er was Eliez­er; for the God of my fa­ther, ­said he, was mine help, and de­liv­ered me from the sword of Pharaoh: 5 And Jethro, Moses' fa­ther in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilder­ness, where he en­camped at the mount of God: 6 And he said unto Moses, I thy fa­ther in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her. 7 And Moses went out to meet his fa­ther in law, and did obei­sance, and kissed him; and they asked each oth­er of their wel­fare; and they came into the tent. 8 And Moses told his fa­ther in law all that the LORD had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyp­tians for Israel's sake, and all the tra­vail that had come upon them by the way, and how the LORD de­liv­ered them. 9 And Jethro re­joiced for all the good­ness which the LORD had done to Is­rael, whom he had de­liv­ered out of the hand of the Egyp­tians. 10 And Jethro said, Blessed be the LORD, who hath de­liv­ered you out of the hand of the Egyp­tians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath de­liv­ered the peo­ple from un­der the hand of the Egyp­tians. 11 Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing where­in they dealt proud­ly he was above them. 12 And Jethro, Moses' fa­ther in law, took a burnt of­fer­ing and sac­ri­fices for God: and Aaron came, and all the el­ders of Is­rael, to eat bread with Moses' fa­ther in law be­fore God. 13 And it came to pass on the mor­row, that Moses sat to judge the peo­ple: and the peo­ple stood by Moses from the morn­ing unto the evening. 14 And when Moses' fa­ther in law saw all that he did to the peo­ple, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the peo­ple? why sittest thou thy­self alone, and all the peo­ple stand by thee from morn­ing unto even? 15 And Moses said unto his fa­ther in law, Be­cause the peo­ple come unto me to en­quire of God: 16 When they have a mat­ter, they come unto me; and I judge be­tween one and an­oth­er, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws. 17 And Moses' fa­ther in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. 18 Thou wilt sure­ly wear away, both thou, and this peo­ple that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to per­form it thy­self alone. 19 Hear­ken now unto my voice, I will give thee coun­sel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the peo­ple to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the caus­es unto God: 20 And thou shalt teach them or­di­nances and laws, and shalt shew them the way where­in they must walk, and the work that they must do. 21 More­over thou shalt pro­vide out of all the peo­ple able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hat­ing cov­etous­ness; and place such over them, ­to be rulers of thou­sands, and rulers of hun­dreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: 22 And let them judge the peo­ple at all sea­sons: and it shall be, that ev­ery great mat­ter they shall bring unto thee, but ev­ery small mat­ter they shall judge: so shall it be eas­i­er for thy­self, and they shall bear the burden with thee. 23 If thou shalt do this thing, and God com­mand thee so, then thou shalt be able to en­dure, and all this peo­ple shall also go to their place in peace. 24 So Moses hear­kened to the voice of his fa­ther in law, and did all that he had said. 25 And Moses chose able men out of all Is­rael, and made them heads over the peo­ple, rulers of thou­sands, rulers of hun­dreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 26 And they judged the peo­ple at all sea­sons: the hard caus­es they brought unto Moses, but ev­ery small mat­ter they judged them­selves. 27 And Moses let his fa­ther in law de­part; and he went his way into his own land.