Deuteronomy 1:15
So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.
Moses took the chief men of the tribes, men who were wise and respected and known, and made them heads over the people as captains over thousands and captains over hundreds and captains over fifties and captains over tens, with officers among the tribes. The appointments distributed government and its burdens throughout the people, sharing the work of leadership and administration among chosen men rather than leaving Moses to bear it alone. These men were to serve as judges and trusted rulers to relieve Moses of carrying the people's burdens by himself. Their appointment depended on continued loyalty and faithfulness.
They were to be wise, God-fearing, truthful, and faithful, and to exercise authority with equity, without favoritism or bribery or fear of powerful people. The graded civil leadership was put in place at Sinai, completing the organization begun before leaving Egypt, during the nearly year-long encampment that prepared Israel for entrance into Canaan. God was the center of authority and government and the sovereign of Israel, with Moses as visible leader administering the laws in His name, assisted by a council of seventy chosen from the elders of the tribes, while the priests consulted the Lord in the sanctuary. Under them tribal chiefs or princes ruled over the tribes, followed by leaders over thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens, with officers for special duties last.
The same divine order appeared in the camp with the tabernacle, the abiding-place of God, in the midst, the priests and Levites tented around it, and each tribe outside beside its own standard. That order displays completeness and simplicity like the order in all God's created works. The verse belongs to Moses' account of Israel's wilderness experiences, including failures and victories, which God wanted Israel to remember and rehearse as a record of the lessons He had given them during their years in the wilderness.
The chapter containing the verse is the word of the Lord to be read in full together with Deuteronomy 7 and 8, written for admonition for those living at the ends of the world. That admonition calls for asking whether a course is the will of the Lord rather than following human opinion and judgment. It calls for following the Lord's guidance fully instead of following it only to the point that agrees with one's own judgment and then holding to one's own ideas. It calls for viewing everything in the light of Christ's example of self-denial and self-sacrifice, copying it and receiving His glory of character in order to reach the Lord's standard of perfection of character instead of pleasing self or following feeble human standards.