Exodus 18:19

Exo 18:19 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:

Ver. 19. I will give thee counsel.] A Midianite counsels Moses: God hereby teacheth him humility.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exo 18:19-23. Be thou for them to God-ward — That was an honour in which it was not fit any other should share with him. Also whatever concerned the whole congregation must pass through his hand, Exo 18:20. But he appointed judges in the several tribes and families, which should try causes between man and man, and determine them, which would be done with less noise and more despatch than in the general assembly. Those whose gifts and stations are most eminent may yet be greatly furthered in their work by the assistance of those that are every way their inferiors. This is Jethro’s advice; but he adds two qualifications to his counsel. First, That great care should be taken in the choice of the persons who should be admitted into this trust; it was requisite that they should be men of the best character. 1st, For judgment and resolution, able men — Men of good sense, that understood business; and bold men, that would not be daunted by frowns or clamours. 2d, For piety, such as fear God — Who believe there is a God above them, that his eye is upon them, and that they are accountable to him, and who therefore stand in awe of his judgment. Conscientious men, that will not do a wrong thing, though they could do it never so secretly and securely. 3d, For honesty, men of truth — Whose word one may take, and whose fidelity one may rely upon. 4th, For a generous contempt of worldly wealth; hating covetousness — Not only not seeking bribes, or aiming to enrich themselves, but abhorring the thought of it. Secondly, That he should attend to God’s direction in the case, verse

23. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so — Jethro knew that Moses had a better counsellor than he was, and to his counsel he refers him.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18:19-22 Moses needed to distinguish between his teaching function, in which he received and declared God’s decrees and instructions (18:19-20), and his administrative function, in which he applied all of those decrees and instructions (18:21-22).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Judge thou in hard causes, which cannot be decided but by consulting with God.

Or, counsel.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 19. I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee] Jethro seems to have been a man of great understanding and prudence. His advice to Moses was most appropriate and excellent; and it was probably given under the immediate inspiration of God, for after such sacrificial rites, and public acknowledgment of God, the prophetic spirit might be well expected to descend and rest upon him. God could have showed Moses the propriety and necessity of adopting such measures before, but he chose in this case to help man by man, and in the present instance a permanent basis was laid to consolidate the union of the two families, and prevent all future misunderstandings.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(19) God shall be with thee.—Rather, may Go be with thee. May He give thee wisdom to direct the course aright.

Be thou for the people to God-ward.—Be the person, i.e., to bring before God whatever needs to be brought before Him. Continue both to act as representative of the people towards God, and as representative of God towards the people. Take all difficult causes to Him, and pronounce to the people His decision upon them. Be also the expounder to the people of God’s laws and ordinances; be their moral instructor, and the guide of their individual actions (Exo_18:20). All this is quite compatible with the change which I am about to recommend to thee.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19, 20. be thou (emph.) to the people in front of God] i.e. be thou (as hitherto) God’s representative to the people, and bring thou (again emph.) the causes,—i.e., from the context (cf. vv. 22, 26), the more important or difficult cases,—unto God for decision; and warn them of the statutes and the directions, and make them to know the way wherein they should walk, and the work that they should do. All this relates to what Moses has done already: he is, as he has already done, to bring important cases to God, and to advise the people of the general laws which follow from their determination (as, for instance, from a particular case of damage, there might result a decision which would give such a law as Exo_21:33-34), and so make known to them how they are to act when such cases arise. Jethro’s fresh suggestions for the future follow in vv. 21–23.

and God be with thee] or, more probably (G.-K. § 109 f), that God may be with thee to assist thee—as He hardly will be, if thou undertakest what is altogether beyond thy powers.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws,.... Both with respect to things civil and religious, which he should receive from God:

and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk; the path of faith and duty, the way of truth, holiness, and righteousness:

and the work that they must do; both with respect to God, and one another, the various duties and exercises of religion, everything relating to their moral, religious, and civil conduct.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Counsel - Jethro draws the distinction between the functions of the legislator and the judge.

To God-ward - Literally, “before God,” standing between them and God, both as His minister or representative and also as the representative of the people, their agent, so to speak, or deputy before God.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

God shall be with thee, i.e. I doubt not God will assist and bless thee, as well in the course which I propose to thee, as in that which thou now dost use, because God is a God of order, and loves order; and he is a God of mercy, and would not have thee destroy thyself in his work. Or it may be taken for a prayer, and God be with thee, i.e. bless and assist thee therein.

To Godward, Heb. before God, i.e. in hard and weighty causes, which the inferior judges cannot determine, as it is explained Exo 18:22; where they need and seek direction from God, there thou shalt be as a mediator between God and them, to bring their matters to God, as it here follows, and to receive directions and commands from him. See Num 15:33,34; 27:5,6.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. I will give thee counsel — Like Melchizedek, “priest of the Most High God,” (Gen_14:18,) who blessed Abram, the father of the faithful, Jethro, another priest of like rank, assumes to counsel Moses the man of God. Conscious of holding an approved relationship toward God, he put forth his advice as one having a measure of authority over his son-in-law.

Be thou for the people to God-ward — That is, be thou the representative and spokesman of the people before God, as the next sentence further explains. That thou mayest bring the causes (הדברים, matters of controversy, comp. Exo_18:16) unto God — Matters of great moment, on which divine counsel was to be sought, should be intrusted to Moses; but affairs of less importance might be left to inferior judges. Exo_18:22.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee. Rather may God be with thee!" May God incline thine heart to accept mycounsel and act upon it. Be thou for the people to God-ward, etc. "Continue," i.e. , as at present, to be the intermediary between God and the people still be the whole and sole source of legislative power (ver. 20), and still be the fount and origin of judicial authority; but commit the actual decision of the lighter causes to others chosen by thyself for the office (vers. 21, 22). The separation of the legislative and judicial functions was well known in Egypt, where the kings alone made new laws (Heb 2:109, Heb 2:136, Heb 2:177, etc.), but causes were ordinarily determined by a body of judges. Bring the causes unto God. In difficult cases, Moses actually laid the cause before God, and obtained directions from God as to the manner in which he was to decide it. See Num_27:5-11.

HOMILIES BY G. A. GOODHART Ver. 19. The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee.

Men may make a channel for the stream, but they cannot make the stream. Water-power is a grand natural agency; but it is by means of human agency that it may be applied to the best advantage. So also in other matters; power comes from God; the way to use and economise power it is left for man to discover and to act upon. Consider here:

I THE DIVINE POWER. "God shall be with thee," said Jethro. The history shows how God had been with him already, how he was with him all through his life. Especially we may notice

1. His relation to Pharaoh. The shepherd facing the king. Whence his boldness? He had shrunk beforehand at the mere prospect; when the hour came Pharaoh quailed before him. It was not Moses, it was the power which manifested itself through Moses, that humbled Pharaoh. Moses was but the visible rod in the outstretched hand of the invisible Jehovah.

2. His relation to the people. Harder to face a fickle multitude than to face an obstinate and Powerful monarch. Here too the Divine Power was manifested; the glory of Jehovah was, as it were, reflected from the face of his servant. It was the radiancy of the reflected glory which again and again cowed the rebels to submission. As with Jeremiah, (Jer_1:4-8) Zerubbabel, (Zec_4:6) St. Paul, (2Co_12:9, 2Co_12:10) so also with Moses; human weakness the more evidently testified to Divine power.

II THE HUMAN COUNSEL. Notice:

1. The need of it. Men are so weak that they are soon unhinged by a great trust reposed in them. Their attention is so fixed upon the one thing, that other things are seen out of perspective. Moses was so filled with the consciousness of a Divine power working through him, that he failed at first to realise the fact that he was unequal to the friction necessitated by such a power. He realised the effect of the power in prospect more accurately than he could do after it possessed him (cf. ch. 4.). As the mediator between God and Israel, had it not been for Jethro"s counsel, he must soon have been worn out through forgetting the necessities of his own nature. Lives are still wasted and shortened through a like oversight. The man who feels that he is the channel of Divine power is, for the time, so God-intoxicated, that it does not occur to him to share his responsibilities. He must be both head and hands in everything, and the head in consequence soon grows heavy, and the hands hang down. Under the force of inspiration, common-sense is in abeyance; all the more need for wise counsel from those who occupy a neutral stand-point.

2. The wisdom of it. Jethro saw that the great thing was not that Moses should do all the work, but that all the work should be done. The power to do it, was no doubt lodged with Moses (cf. water-power lodged with keeper of sluice gates). The work, however, might be best done by a distribution of the power through selected agents. Moses need not to be head and hands; he might choose other hands, making them responsible to himself as head. Moses showed his wisdom by accepting the wise counsels of Jethro; many men would have shown their folly by setting them aside as the suggestions of ignorance.

Concluding considerations. Inspiration is a grand thing; but it may be best utilised by common-sense. God"s power enables for action; but that power is best applied when the counsels of Jethro are attended to. All men have not the same gifts; and those who have what seem to be the higher gifts, are apt to set too small a value upon advice given by those less gifted. Even the gift of faith, however, needs the gift of wisdom to direct it. Moses was able to do more than he otherwise could have done because he was wise enough to hearken to the voice of Jethro, his father-in-law. G.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be thou for them to God-ward - That was an honour which it was not fit any other should share with him in. Also whatever concerned the whole congregation must pass through his hand, ver. 20. But, he appointed Judg. in the several tribes and families, which should try causes between man and man, and determine them, which would be done with less noise, and more dispatch than in the general assembly. Those whose gifts and stations are most eminent may yet be greatly furthered in their work by the assistance of those that are every way their inferiors. This is Jethro's advice; but he adds two qualifications to his counsel. (1.)That great care should be taken in the choice of the persons who should be admitted into this trust; it was requisite that they should be men of the best character.

1. For judgment and resolution, able men: men of good sense, that understood business; and bold men, that would not be daunted by frowns or clamours. Clear heads and stout hearts make good Judges.

2. For piety, such as fear God, who believe there is a God above them, whose eye is upon them, to whom they are accountable, and whose judgment they stand in awe of. Conscientious men, that dare not do an ill thing, though they could do it never so secretly and securely.

3. For honesty, men of truth, whose word one may take, and whose fidelity one may rely upon.

4. For a generous contempt of worldly wealth, hating covetousness, not only not seeking bribes, or aiming to enrich themselves, but abhorring the thought of it. (2.) That he should attend God's direction in the case, ver. 23. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so - Jethro knew that Moses had a better counsellor than he was, and to his counsel he refers him.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Hearken now unto my voice

(Cf) Num 11:14-17. Jehovah entirely ignored this worldly-wise organization, substituting His own order.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

איעצך ויהי אלהים עמך I WILL GIVE THEE COUNSEL BUT LET GOD BE WITH THEE in considering this counsel. This is really what he said to him: Go and consult with the Almighty as regards the counsel I give you (Mekhilta).

היה אתה לעם מול האלהים BE THOU FOR THE PEOPLE TO GOD-WARD — be thou the agent and intermediary between them and the Omnipresent, and be thou the one who enquires of Him regarding the judgments.

את הדברים [AND THOU SHALT BRING] THE MATTERS — i. e. the matters of their strife.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

AND G-D BE WITH THEE. “I.e., in this counsel. Jethro said to Moses, ‘Go and consult with the Almighty.’” Thus Rashi’s language. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote: “‘Listen to me, and G-d will help you to succeed as I have counselled you.’ Further, however, Jethro said, ‘If thou shalt do this thing, and G-d command thee so, which means ‘if you will do this thing — i.e., that you will consult with the Almighty — and He will command you to do it, then you will be able to endure.’ And there is no doubt that Moses did so” [i.e., he first consulted with G-d and received His sanction and then proceeded to make this arrangement].

BE THOU FOR THE PEOPLE ‘MUL’ G-D. That is, “‘before’ G-d.” Jethro told Moses, “Be thou their intercessor before G-d, to pray to Him.” This is like the verse, I call by day; I cry in the night before Thee.

AND BRING THOU THE CAUSES — namely, which they will ask — UNTO G-D. Jethro conceded the first matter that Moses had said, i.e., Because the people come unto me to inquire of G-d. It is possible that in this too there was counselling on his part. Jethro would thus be saying: “Be thou for the people before G-d, to sit in the Tent of Meeting before Him, ready to inquire of Him [on the matters they bring to you]. And this should not be at the place where you sit in judgment [to adjudicate their disputes].”

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.