1: 17b-18 - 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.

Despite the appointments there remained the possibility of situations "too difficult for you." These, Moses assured them, he would continue to assume the responsibility to hear. We should not pass over this note too quickly. At the time—they had just arrived at Mount Sinai/Horeb, remember—those appointed as leaders and judges had lived only lives of sheltered shattered oppression as slaves. The offer to hear cases too difficult for them was not an act of condescension but of real necessity. Great leaders know where to leave things be so that others can get on with the task, and where to leave the door open for others to walk in and ask for help without shame.

Moses' recollection of this great event when Israel began to take back control over their civic responsibilities ends with the report that "at that time I instructed you about all the things you should do." This underscores the point that, from Horeb onwards, GenA suffered no lack that would make them ignorant of what was right to do

Now, these things Moses may have done with GenA, but what purpose does this recollection serve for GenB? Or for GenN?

As we have already noted in our introduction to this section, commentators are almost unanimous in their opinions that Moses' intention here was to make provisions for setting up different levels of leadership and governance for Israel. We have also noted that such a suggestion is entirely un-satisfactory. (Click here if you need a reminder)

Two observations about the often-ignored approval by the people of Moses' proposal (v14) hint at Moses' (or, at least, the narrator's) purpose for this retrospective. Firstly, as we have already noted in our comment on the verse, it is not reported elsewhere in the Old Testament. Secondly, the approval is set at the core of the chiasmus that composes this recall:

A. At that time (b't hhw) I said to you, . . . v9

B. I cannot bear your troubles alone, v12

C. Chose wise . . . respected men from each of your tribe (chkmh . . . yd'm . . . lshbtsym) . . . I will set them over you as leaders (r'sh), v13

D. What you propose is good, v14

C'. I took the leading men of your tribes (r'sh shbtym), men who are wise and respected (chkmh yd'm) and set them as your leaders (r'sh), v15

B'. Adjudicate between brothers and judge rightly, v16

A'. At that time (b't hhw) I instructed you . . . v18.

This rhetorical arrangement suggests that the pronouncement, "what you propose is good," is the interpretative key to the passage. Set within the larger context of Moses' recollection of the loss of the past generation, the occurrence of the adjective "good" here is the first in a chain of that adjective that serves, as we have already seen in our introduction to this division, as a motif through which GenA's slide into rebellion is chronicled (click here if you need a reminder).

This account, therefore, anticipates the recounting (in the next section) of the dispute that arose in the wake of the spies' report whether to proceed into the land or not. By asserting that the GenA already knew enough to know how to judge between right and wrong, to be able to discern the judgment that belongs to Yahweh, this recall serves, anticipatively, to underline the faithlessness and unbelief of their rebellion at Kadesh Barnea.

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