Exodus 18:17

THE MESSAGE

Moses' father-in-law said, "This is no way to go about it. You'll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can't do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They'll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They'll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they'll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you'll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also."

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Moshe' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good.

King James Version
And Moses' father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.

Lexham English Bible
And the father-in-law of Moses said to him, "The thing that you are doing is not good.

New Century Version
Moses' father-in-law said to him, "You are not doing this right.

New English Translation
Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good!

Amplified Bible
Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you are doing is not good.

New American Standard Bible
Moses' father-in-law then said to him, "The thing that you are doing is not good.

Geneva Bible (1587)
But Moses father in law said vnto him, The thing which thou doest, is not well.

Legacy Standard Bible
And Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you are doing is not good.

Contemporary English Version
Jethro replied: That isn't the best way to do it.

Complete Jewish Bible
Moshe's father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing isn't good.

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

Easy-to-Read Version
But Moses' father-in-law said to him, "This isn't the right way to do this.

English Standard Version
Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good.

George Lamsa Translation
And Moses father-in-law said to him, The thing that you are doing is not good.

Good News Translation
Then Jethro said, "You are not doing this right.

Christian Standard Bible®
“What you’re doing is not good,” Moses’s father-in-law said to him.

Literal Translation
And the father-in-law of Moses said to him, The thing which you do is not good.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
His father in lawe sayde vnto him: It is not well that thou doest.

American Standard Version
And Moses' father-in-law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.

Bible in Basic English
And Moses' father-in-law said to him, What you are doing is not good.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And Moyses father in lawe sayde vnto hym: It is not well that thou doest.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And Moses' father-in-law said unto him: 'The thing that thou doest is not good.

King James Version (1611)
And Moses father in law saide vnto him, The thing that thou doest, is not good.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the father-in-law of Moses said to him, Thou dost not this thing rightly,

English Revised Version
And Moses' father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.

Berean Standard Bible
But Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Jetro seide, Thou doist a thing not good,

Young's Literal Translation
And the father-in-law of Moses saith unto him, `The thing which thou art doing [is] not good;

Update Bible Version
And Moses' father-in-law said to him, The thing that you do is not good.

Webster's Bible Translation
And Moses's father-in-law said to him, The thing that thou doest [is] not good.

World English Bible
Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good.

New King James Version
So Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good.

New Living Translation
"This is not good!" Moses' father-in-law exclaimed.

New Life Bible
Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good.

New Revised Standard
Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then said Moses' father-in-law unto him, - Not good, is the thing that thou art doing.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But he said: The thing thou dost is not good.

Revised Standard Version
Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you are doing is not good.

Contextual Overview

¹³The next day Moses took his place to judge the people. People were standing before him all day long, from morning to night. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, "What's going on here? Why are you doing all this, and all by yourself, letting everybody line up before you from morning to night?" ¹⁵Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me with questions about God. When something comes up, they come to me. I judge between a man and his neighbor and teach them God's laws and instructions." ¹⁷Moses' father-in-law said, "This is no way to go about it. You'll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can't do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They'll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They'll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they'll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you'll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also." ²⁴Moses listened to the counsel of his father-in-law and did everything he said. Moses picked competent men from all Israel and set them as leaders over the people who were organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They took over the everyday work of judging among the people. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but in the routine cases they were the judges. Then Moses said good-bye to his father-in-law who went home to his own country.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

not good: Exodus 18:14, Deuteronomy 1:12, 1 Kings 3:8, 1 Kings 3:9, 1 Kings 13:18, 2 Chronicles 19:6, Matthew 17:4, John 13:6-10

Reciprocal: Genesis 20:7 - a prophet Proverbs 27:9 - so Acts 6:2 - we should

Cross-References

Genesis 19:24
Then God rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah—a river of lava from God out of the sky!—and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.

2 Kings 4:27
But when she reached the Holy Man at the mountain, she threw herself at his feet and held tightly to him. Gehazi came up to pull her away, but the Holy Man said, "Leave her alone—can't you see that she's in distress? But God hasn't let me in on why; I'm completely in the dark."

Psalms 25:14
God-friendship is for God-worshipers; They are the ones he confides in.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Moses's father in law said unto him,.... Having observed what he did, and heard his answer to the question he put to him:

the thing that thou doest is not good; not meaning that it was not morally good, or that it was morally evil; for it was certainly a good thing to inquire of the mind and will of God for the people, and to hear and decide matters in controversy between them, and do justice to both parties; but it was not good for the health of Moses; it was not commodious and convenient for him; it was not for his bodily welfare; it was too much for him, as he explains himself in the next verse.