Exodus 17-18

Darby Translation

17 And all the assembly of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, according to their journeys, at the command of Jehovah; and they encamped in Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink.

² And the people contended with Moses, and said, Give us water, that we may drink! And Moses said to them, Why do ye dispute with me? Why do ye tempt Jehovah?

³ And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Why is it that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

⁴ And Moses cried to Jehovah, saying, What shall I do with this people? Yet a little, and they will stone me!

⁵ And Jehovah said to Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy staff with which thou didst smite the river, take in thy hand, and go.

⁶ Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock on Horeb; and thou shalt strike the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel.

⁷ And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they had tempted Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us, or not?

⁸ And Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

⁹ And Moses said to Joshua, Choose us men, and go out, fight with Amalek; to-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.

¹⁰ And Joshua did as Moses had said to him, to fight with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

¹¹ And it came to pass when Moses raised his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

¹² And Moses' hands were heavy; then they took a stone, and put [it] under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on this side, and one on that side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

¹³ And Joshua broke the power of Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴ And Jehovah said to Moses, Write this [for] a memorial in the book, and rehearse [it] in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens.

¹⁵ And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi.

¹⁶ And he said, For the hand is on the throne of Jah; Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation!

18 And Jethro the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done to Moses, and to Israel his people; that Jehovah had brought Israel out of Egypt.

² And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back,

³ and her two sons, of whom the name of the one was Gershom—for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land,

⁴ —and the name of the other, Eliezer—For the God of my father has been my help, and has delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.

⁵ And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came to Moses with his sons and his wife into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mountain of God.

⁶ And he sent word to Moses: I, thy father-in-law Jethro, am come to 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 [after] their welfare, and went into the tent.

⁸ And Moses told his father-in-law all that Jehovah had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake; all the trouble that had befallen them on the way, and [how] Jehovah had delivered them.

⁹ And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness that Jehovah had done to Israel; that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁰ And Jethro said, Blessed be Jehovah, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh; who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

¹¹ Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all gods; for in the thing in which they acted haughtily [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 in the presence of 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 to the evening.

¹⁴ And Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did with the people, and said, What is this thing which thou art doing with the people? why dost thou sit alone, and all the people are standing by thee from morning to evening?

¹⁵ And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to enquire of God.

¹⁶ When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known [to them] the statutes of God, and his laws.

¹⁷ And Moses' father-in-law said to him, The thing that thou art doing is not good.

¹⁸ Thou wilt be quite exhausted, both thou and this people that is with thee; for the thing is too heavy for thee: thou canst not perform it alone.

¹⁹ Hearken now to my voice: I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee. Be thou for the people with God, and bring the matters before God;

²⁰ and teach them the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do.

²¹ But do thou provide among all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place [them] over them, chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens,

²² that they may judge the people at all times; and it shall be [that] they shall bring to thee every great matter, and that they shall judge every small matter, and they shall lighten [the task] on thee, and they shall bear [it] with thee.

²³ If thou do this thing, and God command thee [so], thou wilt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.

²⁴ And 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, chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens.

²⁶ And they judged the people at all times: the hard matters they brought to Moses, but every small matter they judged.

²⁷ And Moses sent away his father-in-law, and he departed into his land.