¹ Now when these things were done, the word of the Lord came to Abram by a vision, saying: Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great.

² And Abram said: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? I shall go without children: and the son of the steward of my house is this Damascus Eliezer.

³ And Abram added: But to me thou hast not given seed: and lo my servant, born in my house, shall be my heir.

⁴ And immediately the word of the Lord came to him, saying: He shall not be thy heir: but he that shall come out of thy bowels, him shalt thou have for thy heir.

⁵ And he thought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars, if thou canst. And he said to him: So shall thy seed be.

⁶ Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.

⁷ And he said to him: I am the Lord who brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to gibe thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it.

⁸ But he said: Lord God, whereby may I know that I shall possess it?

⁹ And the Lord answered, and said: Take me a cow of three years old, and a she goat of three years, and a ram of three years, a turtle also, and a pigeon.

¹⁰ And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the two pieces of each one against the other; but the birds he divided not.

¹¹ And the fowls came down upon carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

¹² And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great and darksome horror seized upon him.

¹³ And it was said unto him: Know thou beforehand that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not their own, and they shall bring them under bondage, and afflict them four hundred years.

¹⁴ But I will judge the nation which they shall serve, and after this they shall come out with great substance.

¹⁵ And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age.

¹⁶ But in the fourth generation they shall return hither: for as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full until this present time.

¹⁷ And when the sun was set, there arose a dark mist, and there appeared a smoking furnace and a lamp of fire passing between those divisions.

¹⁸ That day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates.

¹⁹ The Cineans and Cenezites, the Cedmonites,

²⁰ And the Hethites, and the Pherezites, the Raphaim also,

²¹ And the Amorrhites, and the Chanaanits, and the Gergesites, and the Jebusites.

¹ Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, how that Yahweh had brought Israel out of Egypt.

² Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away,

³ and her two sons. The name of one son was Gershom, for Moses said, "I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land".

⁴ The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, "My father's God was my help and delivered me from Pharaoh's sword."

⁵ Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of God.

⁶ He said to Moses, "I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her."

⁷ Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed and kissed him. They asked each other of their welfare, and they came into the tent.

⁸ Moses told his father-in-law all that Yahweh had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardships that had come on them on the way, and how Yahweh delivered them.

⁹ Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which Yahweh had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁰ Jethro said, "Blessed be Yahweh, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh; who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

¹¹ Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all gods because of the thing in which they dealt arrogantly against them."

¹² Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. Aaron came with all of the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.

¹³ It happened on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning to the evening.

¹⁴ When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, "What is this thing that you do for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning to evening?"

¹⁵ Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to inquire of God.

¹⁶ When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws."

¹⁷ Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good.

¹⁸ You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone.

¹⁹ Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God.

²⁰ You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do.

²¹ Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

²² Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you.

²³ If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all of these people also will go to their place in peace."

²⁴ So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said.

²⁵ Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

²⁶ They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard causes to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

²⁷ Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way into his own land.