Exodus 18:13-26 tells of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, advising Moses to not act as the exclusive judge for the large number of people who come to him, because he is only exhausting himself gratuitously. The proposed solution is having others act as judges as opposed to simply having no one hear the numerous cases that would have been brought to Moses. In Deuteronomy 1:9-18, Moses retells these events, but leaves out a reference to Jethro and adds his own words to the new judges.
Exodus 18:13-26—"The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, 'What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?'
Moses answered him, 'Because the people come to me to seek God's will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God's decrees and instructions.'
Moses' father-in-law replied, 'What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.'
Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves."
Deuteronomy 1:9-18—"At that time I said to you, 'You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone. The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky. May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised! But how can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself? Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.'
You answered me, 'What you propose to do is good.'
So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials. And I charged your judges at that time, 'Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you. Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it.' And at that time I told you everything you were to do."
According to Exodus 18, Jethro encourages Moses to dilute his bloated workload by appointing other figures to judge cases themselves. According to Deuteronomy 1, Moses installed such figures to act as judges, insisting that they (as reason and Yahweh's prescriptions require) harbor no bias towards or against anyone, regardless of his or her ancestry and social or economic standing. The summary of his own actions Moses provides in the first chapter of Deuteronomy does add points about how he addressed those placed in authority. But, none of these details contradict the exact particulars of the account in Exodus 18.
The beginning of Deuteronomy summarizes the outcome of the incident described in Exodus 18:13-26. True, the second book to address the historical appointment of Israelite judges acting on behalf of Moses and ultimately God does not mention Jethro. Nor does the Exodus narrative bring up the charge of Moses that these judges rightfully refrain from any discrimination against Israelites, foreigners, the rich, and the poor, though it does state that Moses acted in accordance with Jethro's advice and that the judges brought the most challenging cases to Moses, handling the rest on their own. Nothing about the one book's alleged sequence of events is incompatible with those of the other.
It is important that Moses was actually already receiving divine revelation about morality, including the just penalties for various wrongs, before the Sinai covenant (see also Exodus 16 regarding the Sabbath and Genesis 26:5 regarding Abraham's righteousness), which is yet another reason why the moral revelation codified in Mosaic Law that begins only two chapters later could not be only for the Israelites—except where its content logically could not apply to a non-Israelite as with Leviticus 21:1-4 and Deuteronomy 25:17-19. That is why miscellaneous acts condemned in the Law are said therein to be evil for non-Israelites as well, such as in Leviticus 18:5-30 and Deuteronomy 18:9-13; such immoral acts and many others are capable of being performed by people of any nation or lineage. Morality is morality, applying to all people except where there is some logically necessary exception. Exodus 18 has relevance to such vital facts.
Moreover, the chapter touches on the legitimacy of not burdening oneself needlessly to the point of damaging one's mental health even for the sake of God, something lurking more in the background of Deuteronomy 1:9-18 but still touched on in verse 12. No one needs to go above and beyond for either God or other people. While Exodus emphasizes this far more than Deuteronomy's looser overview of the need for judges besides Moses as well as his words to those appointed, the details of the events as described in both Exodus 18 and Deuteronomy 1 are wholly consistent with each other. Numerous times, Deuteronomy restates or adds information about earlier events or moral laws affirmed throughout Exodus and Leviticus, which does not require that there is a contradiction.
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