Exodus 4:18

_AND MOSES WENT AND RETURNED TO JETHRO HIS FATHER IN LAW, AND SAID UNTO HIM, LET ME GO, I PRAY THEE, AND RETURN UNTO MY BRETHREN WHICH ARE IN EGYPT, AND SEE WHETHER THEY BE YET ALIVE. AND JETHRO SAID TO MOSES, GO IN PEACE._ MOSES ... RETURNED TO JETHRO. Being in his service, it was right to obtain his consent; but Moses evinced piety, humility, and prudence, in not divulging the special object of his journey....

18._And Moses went. _It is surprising that Moses should have suppressed the vision whereby the mind of his father-in-law might have been most inclined to let him go; for he speaks merely of human feelings, that he desired to revisit his brethren and relations. Yet it must have been disagreeable to his father-in-law to lose his services, and that diligence and industry by which he had largely profited; nor could it have been pleasant to send away his daughter and grandchildren to a foreign country. Whether he was forbidden to do so by God, or whether he was silent from fear and shame, is uncertain; but I incline rather to this supposition, that he dared not speak of his vocation, lest its incredibility should cause him to be suspected of falsehood and vanity. Since, then, it would have been difficult to obtain belief as to his vocation, he preferred making a pretext of his natural affecti...

18-23 After God had appeared in the bush, he often spake to Moses. Pharaoh had hardened his own heart against the groans and cries of the oppressed Israelites; and now God, in the way of righteous judgment, hardens his heart against the teaching of the miracles, and the terror of the plagues. But whether Pharaoh will hear, or whether he will forbear, Moses must tell him, Thus saith the Lord. He must demand a discharge for Israel, Let my son go; not only my servant, whom thou hast no right to detain, but my son. It is my son that serves me, and therefore must be spared, must be pleaded for. In case of refusal I will slay thy son, even thy first-born. As men deal with God's people, let them expect so to be dealt with....

Verse Exodus 4:18. _LET ME GO, I PRAY THEE, AND RETURN UNTO MY BRETHREN_] Moses, having received his commission from God, and directions how to execute it, returned to his father-in-law, and asked permission to visit his family and brethren in Egypt, without giving him any intimation of the great errand on which he was going. His keeping this secret has been attributed to his _singular modesty_: but however true it might be that Moses was a truly humble and modest man, yet his _prudence_ alone was sufficient to have induced him to observe silence on this subject; for, if once imparted to the family of his father-in-law, the news might have reached Egypt before he could get thither, and a general alarm among the Egyptians would in all probability have been the consequence; as _fame_ would not fail to represent Moses as coming to stir up sedition and rebellion, and the whole...

EXPOSITION EXODUS 4:18-2 If Moses had, as we have supposed, been accepted into the Midianitish nation, he would need permission to withdraw himself from the tribal head. This head was now Jether, or Jethro, Moses' connexion by marriage, perhaps his brother-in-law, perhaps a less near connexion. Nations and tribes were at this time anxious to keep up their numbers, and jealous of the desertion even of a single member. Jethro, however, made no opposition to the return of Moses to Egypt, even though he designed to be accompanied by his wife and sons (Exodus 4:20). Scripture gives no indications of the motives which actuated him. Perhaps the Midianites were at this time straitened for want of room. Perhaps the peculiar circumstances of Moses were held to justify his applicatio

AND MOSES WENT AND RETURNED TO JETHRO HIS FATHER IN LAW,.... With his flock of sheep he kept, Exodus 3:1: and said unto him, LET ME GO, I PRAY THEE, AND RETURN TO MY BRETHREN WHICH ARE IN EGYPT; the Israelites, who were so by nation and religion; as Jethro had been kind and beneficent to him, he did not choose to leave him without his knowledge and consent, and especially to take away his wife and children without it: AND SEE WHETHER THEY BE YET ALIVE; it seems by this that Moses had heard nothing of them during the forty years he lived in Midian, which may be thought strange, since it was not very far from Egypt; and besides the Midianites traded in Egypt, as we learn from Genesis 37:28 but this must be ascribed to the providence of God, that so ordered it, that there shou

CHAPTER 4:1-28 MOSES' OBJECTIONS, JEHOVAH'S ANSWER AND THE RETURN TO EGYPT _ 1. The first objection (Exodus 4:1)_ 2. The two signs and Jehovah's assurance (Exodus 4:2) 3. The second objection (Exodus 4:10) 4. Jehovah's answer (Exodus 4:11) 5. Moses' request (Exodus 4:13) 6. Jehovah's anger and answer (Exodus 4:14) 7. The command to return to Egypt (Exodus 4:18

AND MOSES WENT, AND RETURNED, &C.— Thus commissioned by the Almighty, Moses determines immediately to enter upon his office: and, therefore, without informing Jethro of his main design, as that, perhaps, might have retarded it; he urges his desire to go and see whether his brethren (that is, most probably, not the Israelites in general, but those of his own family) were yet alive: to which Jethro readily consents. Moses in this instance, says Poole, has given us a rare example of _piety_ and _prudence,_ in that he took care to avoid all occasions and temptations to disobedience to the Divine commands; as well as of a _singular modesty_ and _humility,_ in that such glorious and familiar converse with God, and the high commission with which he had honoured him, made him neither forget the civility and duty which he owed to his father, nor break out into any public and vain-glorious _ostent...

THE TEXT OF EXODUS TRANSLATION 4 And Mo-ses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, Je-ho-vah hath not appeared unto thee. (2) And Je-ho-vah said unto him, What is that in thy hand? And he said, A rod. (3) And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Mo-ses fled from before it. (4) And Je-ho-vah said unto Mo-ses, Put forth thy hand, and take it by the tail (and he put forth is hand, and laid hold of it, and it became a rod in his hand); (5) that they may believe that Je-ho-vah, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of I-saac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. (6) And Je-ho-vah said furthermore unto him, Put now thy hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. (7)...

4:18 Jethro (a-7) Here, in Hebrew, 'Jether.'...