They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard causes to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
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They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard causes to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
And they judged the people at all times. They brought the difficult situations to Moses, and they judged each small situation themselves.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard causes to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
And they judged the people at all times; they would bring the difficult cases to Moses, but any minor issue they would judge themselves.
And they judged the people at all times; they would bring the difficult cases to Moses, but any minor issue they would judge themselves.
And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
And they iudged the people at all seasons, but they brought the hard causes vnto Moses: for they iudged all small matters themselues.
And they judged the people at all times: and whatsoever was of greater difficulty they referred to him, and they judged the easier cases only.
and they have judged the people at all times; the hard matter they bring in unto Moses, and every small matter they judge themselves.
and they have judged the people at all times; they bring the hard matter to Moses, and they judge every small matter themselves.
They judged the people in normal circumstances. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but they themselves judged all the small cases.
And they judged the people at all times. They brought the difficult situations to Moses, and they judged each small situation themselves.
And they judged the people at all times: the hard matters they brought to Moses, but every small matter they judged.
They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
They acted as judges for the people on a continuing basis. They brought the difficult cases to Moses, but they would judge the small matters themselves.
And they were judges in the causes of the people at all times: the hard questions they put before Moses; but on every small point they gave decisions themselves.
And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
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These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
Shared distinctive vocabulary
הַקָּשֶׁה֙ hard H7186 occurs in 36 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 21 words from the Hebrew and 24 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
In the original languages it is 16 Hebrew tokens and 19 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.
Topical passages linked to Exodus 18:26 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
וְשָׁפְט֥וּ אֶת הָעָ֖ם בְּכָל עֵ֑ת אֶת הַדָּבָ֤ר הַקָּשֶׁה֙ יְבִיא֣וּן אֶל מֹשֶׁ֔ה וְכָל הַדָּבָ֥ר הַקָּטֹ֖ן יִשְׁפּוּט֥וּ הֵֽם
They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard causes to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
World English Bible · Public Domain
καί κρίνω ὁ λαός πᾶς ὥρα πᾶς δέ ῥῆμα ὑπέρογκος ἀναφέρω ἐπί μωυσῆς πᾶς δέ ῥῆμα ἐλαφρός κρίνω αὐτός
And they judged the people at all times; and every too burdensome matter they brought to Moses, but every light matter they judged themselves.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
וְדַיְנִין יָת עַמָא בְּכָל עִדָן יָת פִתְגַם קָשֵׁי מַיְתִין לְוָת משֶׁה וְכָל פִּתְגַם זְעֵיר דָיְנִין אִנוּן:
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
וַהֲווֹן דַּיְינִין יַת עַמָא בְּכָל עִידַן יַת פִּתְגַם קְשֵׁי מַיְיתוּן לְוַת משֶׁה וְכָל פִּתְגַם קָלִיל דַּיְינִין הִינוּן
And they judged the people at all times; a bard case they, brought to Mosheh; but every light matter they judged it.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Exodus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 16 words (12 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is qâsheh (“hard”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on Exodus 18:26 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne
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.
John Gill's Exposition
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Rashi
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)
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.