Exodus 18:5

_WHEN JETHRO, THE PRIEST OF MIDIAN, MOSES' FATHER IN LAW, HEARD OF ALL THAT GOD HAD DONE FOR MOSES, AND FOR ISRAEL HIS PEOPLE, AND THAT THE LORD HAD BROUGHT ISRAEL OUT OF EGYPT;_ Jethro ... came ... unto Moses ... It is thought by many eminent commentators that this episode is inserted out of its chronological order, because it is described as occurring when the Israelites were "encamped at the mount of God." And yet they did not reach it until the third month after their departure from Egypt (Exodus 19:1: cf. Deuteronomy 1:6; Deuteronomy 1:9). Besides, there is internal evidence that this visit took place a considerable time after at Sinai, not only from the fact that the social organization suggested

5._And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law. _It was not so much love for Moses as the fame of the miracles which drew this old man, (195) bowed down with age, from his home into the wilderness; for it will hereafter appear from the context, that he was not induced by ambition; because, after he had offered sacrifice to God, and, in solemn thanksgiving, had testified that he ascribed all the glory to God alone, he returned home again with the same simplicity in which he had come. Moses, too, at the beginning of the chapter, has stated the cause of his coming, for he does not say that he had heard of the arrival of his son-in-law, but how wonderful had been God’s goodness and power in delivering Moses and the people. He desired, therefore, to be in some measure a spectator of the things whereof he had heard, and not to neglect, by remaining at home, such illustrious instances of God’s bounty. I h...

1-6 Jethro came to rejoice with Moses in the happiness of Israel, and to bring his wife and children to him. Moses must have his family with him, that while he ruled the church of God, he might set a good example in family government, 1 Timothy 3:5....

Verse Exodus 18:5. _JETHRO - CAME WITH HIS SONS_] There are several reasons to induce us to believe that the fact related here is out of its due chronological order, and that Jethro did not come to Moses till the beginning of the second year of the exodus, (see Numbers 10:11), some time after the tabernacle had been erected, and the Hebrew commonwealth established, both in things _civil_ and _ecclesiastical_. This opinion is founded on the following reasons: - 1. On this verse, where it is said that Jethro came to Moses _while he was encamped at the mount of God_. Now it appears, from Exodus 19:1, that they were not yet come to Horeb, the mount of God, and that they did not arrive there ti

THE WILDERNESS - i. e., according to the view which seems on the whole most probable, the plain near the northern summit of Horeb, the mountain of God. The valley which opens upon Er Rahah on the left of Horeh is called “Wady Shueib” by the Arabs, i. e. the vale of Hobab....

JETHRO'S VISIT TO MOSES. EXPOSITION JETHRO'S VISIT TO MOSES. It has been noticed, in the comment on Exodus 4:1; that shortly after the circumcision of Eliezer, Moses' second son, he sent back his wife, Zipporah, to her own kinsfolk, the Midianites, together with her two sons, Eliezer and Gershom. Reuel, Zipporah's father, was then dead (Exodus and had been succeeded in his priesthood and headship of the tribe by Jethro, probably his son, and therefore the brother-in-law, and not the father-in-law, of Moses. (The Hebrew word used, as already observed, has both meanings.) Jethro gave protection to his sister and her children until he heard of the passage of the Red Sea, when he set forth to meet and congratulate his kinsman, and to convey back

AND JETHRO, MOSES'S FATHER IN LAW,.... This is the third time he is so called in the chapter already, and many more times besides after in it; the reason of which seems to be, either to distinguish him from another of the same name, or to do him honour, that he should be in such a relation to so great and distinguished a man as Moses now was: CAME WITH HIS SONS AND HIS WIFE UNTO MOSES INTO THE WILDERNESS; not with his own sons and wife, but with the sons and wife of Moses; Zipporah and her sons, as before related; with those he came into the wilderness of Arabia, where Moses now was, and which was not at a great distance from Midian, since about the same spot Moses, when he dwelt there, had, and fed the flock of his father-in-law, Exodus 3:1, that part of the land of Midian where Jethro lived lay somewhere eastward of Mount Sinai, and was probably situated where Sharme now stand

CHAPTER 18 MOSES AND JETHRO _ 1. The coming of Jethro (Exodus 18:1)_ 2. Moses' and Jethro's communion (Exodus 18:6) 3. Jethro's advice (Exodus 18:13) 4. Moses' action (Exodus 18:24) This chapter concludes the first section of the second part of Exodus. We have in it a beautiful dispensational foreshadowing of things to come. God had redeemed Israel, delivered them from Pharaoh's host, manifested His power and had given them victory. The priest of Midian, a Gentile, now comes, having heard all that Jehovah had done for Moses and for Israel, his people. Zipporah, Moses' wife, and his two sons are with

JETHRO AS PRIEST. Exodus 18:1 a (Midian) J, Exodus 18:1 b E, Exodus 18:1 c (supply heard) J, Exodus 18:2 Rje, Exodus 18:5 E, Exodus 18:6 a(b) - Exodus 18:7 J, Exodus 18:8 ab (was) E, Exodus 18:8 c -...

AT THE MOUNT OF GOD— See note on ch. Exodus 3:1. The Israelites were not yet come to this _mount of God;_ but Moses, says Houbigant, being about to relate the departure from Rephidim to the desart of Sinai, where was Horeb, the mountain of GOD, first finishes what was to be related concerning Jethro, and annexes the departure to the mountain of God, mentioned in Exodus 18:1 of the following chapter, to those miracles which were wrought in that mountain, as to the principal event; and not to the visit of Jethro, which was a kind of episode, and which was not of so great moment as to interrupt the future narration. There is no impropriety therefore in Moses's neglecting the order of time, where the cause appears why he relates those things first which happened afterwards. It is, however, supposed by many, that this