And they judged the people at all times is identical to verse 22, but here the tense of the verb must be changed. Hard cases means “the difficult cases” (Good News Translation). Hard is not the same word as “great” in verse 22, but davar is still used for cases. (See verse 16.) But any small matter they decided themselves is the same as verse 22.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .