Deuteronomy 1:12-17 sits inside this longer paragraph.
9I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you myself alone. 10Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude. 11Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! 12How can I myself alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife? 13Take wise men of understanding who are respected among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.”
14You answered me, and said, “The thing which you have spoken is good to do.” 15So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and respected men, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, captains of tens, and officers, according to your tribes. 16I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear cases between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him. 17You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.” 18I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do. 19We traveled from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea. 20I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Yahweh our God gives to us. 21Behold, Yahweh your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as Yahweh the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv12, 13, 15, 17 Signifying how great a burden it is, to govern…
Signifying how great a burden it is, to govern the people.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv12, 15, 16, 17 Deu 1:12 How can I myself alone bear your…
Deu 1:12 How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?
Ver. 12. Hear your cumbrance.] A prince’s temples are not so compassed with a crown, as his mind besieged with cares; nor is he so lifted up with the splendour of his train, as cast down with the multitude of his fears. {See Trapp on "Deu 1:9"} St Paul also had the "cumber {a} of the churches." {2Co 11:28} All care cumbered and mustered together, and that with anxiety; with the same solicitude that a man hath about his own most important business.
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{a} επισυστασις, μεριμνα
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv12, 13, 15, 16, 17 Your burden; the trouble of ruling and managing so…
Your burden; the trouble of ruling and managing so perverse a people.
Your strife; either your quarrellings with God; or rather your contentions among yourselves, for the determination whereof the elders were appointed.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv12, 14, 15, 16, 17 How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and…
How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? His meaning is, that he could not hear and try all their causes, and determine all their law suits, and decide the strifes and controversies which arose between them; it was too heavy for him, and brought too much trouble and incumbrance upon him.
How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? His meaning is, that he could not hear and try all their causes, and determine all their law suits, and decide the strifes and controversies which arose between them; it was too heavy for him, and brought too much trouble and incumbrance upon him.
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Deuteronomy 1:13
deu 1:13
deu 1:13
deu 1:13Take ye wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes,.... Not only whose persons were well known, but their characters and qualifications, for their probity and integrity, for their wisdom and prudence in the management of affairs, for their skill and knowledge in things divine and human, civil and religious, and for their capacity in judging and determining matters in difference; see Exo 18:21.
and I will make them rulers over you; the people were allowed to choose their own officers, whom they were to bring to Moses, and present before him, to be invested with their office. A like method was taken in the choice and constitution of deacons in the Christian church, when the secular affairs of it lay too heavy upon the apostles, Act 6:3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv12, 15, 16, 17 Your burden - The trouble of ruling and managing…
Your burden - The trouble of ruling and managing so perverse a people. Your strife - Your contentions among yourselves, for the determnination whereof the elders were appointed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13, 15, 17 Verse 13. Take you wise men] חכמים chachamim, such…
Verse 13. Take you wise men] חכמים chachamim, such as had gained knowledge by great labour and study. Understanding נבנים nebonim, persons of discernment, judicious men. Known, ידעים yeduim, persons practised in the operations of nature, capable of performing curious and important works.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv12, 15, 16, 17 Deu 1:12-13. How can I alone bear your burden?…
Deu 1:12-13. How can I alone bear your burden? — The trouble of ruling and managing so perverse a people. Your strife — Your contentions among yourselves, for the determination whereof the elders were appointed. Take ye wise men and understanding — Persons of knowledge, wisdom, and experience. Known among your tribes — Hebrew, to your tribes; men had in reputation for ability and integrity; for to such they would more readily submit.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v15 Who, &c. Hebrew, "and shoterim (officers like our serjeants,…
Who, &c. Hebrew, "and shoterim (officers like our serjeants, designed to publish and execute the sentence of the judges) over or among your tribes." The Persians still call such officers chaters. The Rabbins say, that the shoterim were generally selected from among the Cinites, the descendants of Jethro, 1 Paralipomenon ii. 55. But we find that the Levites were also chosen, 2 Paralipomenon xix. 11. They seem to have had sometimes the authority of judges, princes, or doctors for the instruction of the people, as the Vulgate here expresses it. (Calmet)
Ver 17. Respect. Hebrew, "fear." (Menochius) --- Those who judge ought to be quite impartial, and never suffer their sentence to be dictated either by love or by fear. (Haydock) (Ecclesiasticus vii. 6.) --- Of God, to whom you must give an account of your conduct, Wisdom vi. 4. Speak therefore in his name, and imitate his justice and other perfections. See Psalm lxxxi 1. (Calmet) --- If any one absolve an oppressor because he is rich, that judge is guilty of partiality. (Du Hamel) (Isaias i. 23.) --- Hear it, as the supreme judge. (Menochius) --- The people selected such as might be most proper, out of whom Moses made his choice. (Salien) --- An appeal might be made to himself. (Abulensis, q. 11.)
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).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v17 17. The judgment is God’s — It is to…
17. The judgment is God’s — It is to be administered in the name of God, who is the source of all justice, and who, by implication, is supposed to so aid that the judgment is essentially his.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv12, 13, 15, 16, 17 12. How] This emphatic Heb. form is found in…
12. How] This emphatic Heb. form is found in the Pent. only here, Deu_7:17, Deu_12:30, Deu_18:21, (Deu_32:30).
can I myself alone bear] See on Deu_1:9.
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your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife] Better the weight, the burden, and the strife of you. Weight cp. Isa_1:14, they are a weight upon me, I am weary of bearing. Is the use of the word here an echo of Isaiah? The Heb. ṭoraḥ is not found elsewhere in the O. T. Burden or carriage, cp. J, Num_11:11, the burden of all this people upon me, and 17. Strife; the Heb. rîb is used in JE of quarrels about wells and other physical struggles; but also of law-disputes, and of Israel’s contentiousness with Moses and God (E, Exo_17:2; Exo_17:7; J, Num_20:3; P, Num_20:13; and in the Song, Deu_33:8). In D four times for law-pleas. Here it is either the people’s litigiousness among themselves or their frequent contentions with Moses and God.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv12, 16, 17 (12) Your cumbrance.—The original word is found only here…
(12) Your cumbrance.—The original word is found only here and in Isa_1:14 : “They are a trouble unto me, I am weary to bear them.”
Deu_1:13-15 recall very exactly what is said in Exodus 18
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv12, 13, 14, 17 Moses appeals to the good sense of the people…
Moses appeals to the good sense of the people themselves: How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? Cumbrance: this is a just rendering of the Hebrew word jr mo, from jrf which, though it occurs only in the Hiphil in Hebrew, in the sense of to cast down, (Job_17:11) probably was in use also in the Kal, in the sense of to lay upon, to encumber, which is the meaning of the cognate Arabic followed by. Burden (aV; from acn to lift up, to carry, to bear), something lifted up and carried, a load or burden. Strife: (byri) here, not mere contention, but litigation, suit-at-law. Some understand all these three, of troubles and burdens laid upon Moses, by his being called upon to compose differences, and adjust competing claims among the people. But other burdens besides these came upon him as the leader of the nation; and it seems best, therefore, to understand the first two of troubles and burdens generally.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv12, 15, 17 General Information:
General Information:
Moses continues speaking to the people of Israel.
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But how can I myself alone carry your loads, your burdens, and your disputes?
Moses uses a question to emphasize that he cannot solve all of their problems by himself. This rhetorical question can be translated as a statement. AT: "I cannot carry your loads, your burdens, and your disputes by myself." (See: Rhetorical Question)
carry your loads, your burdens
Moses speaks as if the people's problems and complaints that he needed to take care of were heavy physical objects that he had been carrying. AT: "take care of your problems, your complaints" (See: Metaphor)
your disputes
"your arguments" or "your disagreements"
men of good repute from each tribe
"men from each tribe whom the people of Israel respect"
translationWords
burden
wise
understand
tribe
head
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv13, 15, 16 1:13 Those who were well-respected had lives and reputations…
1:13 Those who were well-respected had lives and reputations that were above reproach, even on close scrutiny.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.