The Thing You Do Is Not Good
13 On the next day, Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning to the evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, “What is this thing that you do for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning to evening?” 15 Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. 16 When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.” 17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. 18 You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone. 19 Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God. 20 You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do. 21 Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 22 Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you. 23 If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.” 24 So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said. 25 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 They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. 27 Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way into his own land.
The most heavily used man in Scripture is told plainly that his method will destroy him, and he takes the advice.
On the next day, Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning to the evening.
A queue that lasts all day, every day, for a population of hundreds of thousands. The arrangement is not indolence; it is the opposite, and that is what makes the criticism it receives so pointed.
When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, “What is this thing that you do for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning to evening?”
Moses answers with the reason, and it is a good one: because the people come to me to inquire of God... and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws Exodus 18:15–16. The work is genuinely his, it is genuinely spiritual, and there is no one else doing it.
Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good.
The verdict falls on an activity nobody could fault in itself. What is condemned is not the judging but the method, and the reason given is arithmetic rather than principle: you will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you Exodus 18:18. Both, and this is the part usually missed. A man working past his capacity is not only ruining himself; he is also the bottleneck, and the crowd standing in line from morning to evening is being worn out too.
The counsel that follows separates what only Moses can do from what anyone competent can. He is to keep the two things that require him — you represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God, and you shall teach them the statutes and the laws Exodus 18:19–20 — and to delegate the rest. Intercession and instruction stay; case management goes.
The qualifications for the men who take it are given in four phrases, and only one of them is about competence. Able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain Exodus 18:21. Capability, reverence, honesty, and a settled distaste for money taken wrongly — which in a judge is the vulnerable point, and is named last as though it were the decisive one. Nothing is said about rank or tribe.
Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you.
Jethro adds one condition to his own advice: if you will do this thing, and God commands you so Exodus 18:23. He offers counsel and submits it for confirmation, which is the difference between advice and interference, and it is the reason the chapter can be read as it is.
So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said.
The man who speaks with God face to face takes organizational advice from his wife's father, a priest of another nation, and implements it entirely. Nothing in the account treats this as a concession. Good counsel is good counsel wherever it originates, and the humility of the most privileged man in the book is demonstrated by his taking it without argument.
settled What this mark means