Charles Ellicott Commentary Deuteronomy 1:16

"And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear [the causes] between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the sojourner that is with him." — Deuteronomy 1:16 (ASV)

And I charged your judges ... saying. —These instructions given by Moses are an admirable expansion, but only an expansion, of those of Jethro (Exodus 18:21), that the judges must be “able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness”—a sentence older than the Decalogue itself.