Text -- Exodus 18:1-26 (NET)

The Advice of Jethro

18:1 Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard about all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. 18:2 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Moses’ wife Zipporah after he had sent her back, 18:3 and her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom (for Moses had said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land”), 18:4 and the other Eliezer (for Moses had said, “The God of my father has been my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). 18:5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ sons and his wife, came to Moses in the desert where he was camping by the mountain of God. 18:6 He said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you, along with your wife and her two sons with her.” 18:7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him; they each asked about the other’s welfare, and then they went into the tent. 18:8 Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to Egypt for Israel’s sake, and all the hardship that had come on them along the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. 18:9 Jethro rejoiced because of all the good that the Lord had done for Israel, whom he had delivered from the hand of Egypt. 18:10 Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord who has delivered you from the hand of Egypt, and from the hand of Pharaoh, who has delivered the people from the Egyptians’ control! 18:11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, for in the thing in which they dealt proudly against them he has destroyed them.” 18:12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat food with the father-in-law of Moses before God. 18:13 On the next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning until evening. 18:14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why are you sitting by yourself, and all the people stand around you from morning until evening?” 18:15 Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. 18:16 When they have a dispute, it comes to me and I decide between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the decrees of God and his laws.” 18:17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good! 18:18 You will surely wear out, both you and these people who are with you, for this is too heavy a burden for you; you are not able to do it by yourself. 18:19 Now listen to me, I will give you advice, and may God be with you: You be a representative for the people to God, and you bring their disputes to God; 18:20 warn them of the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. 18:21 But you choose from the people capable men, God-fearing, men of truth, those who hate bribes, and put them over the people as rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 18:22 They will judge the people under normal circumstances, and every difficult case they will bring to you, but every small case they themselves will judge, so that you may make it easier for yourself, and they will bear the burden with you. 18:23 If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will be able to go home satisfied.” 18:24 Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he had said. 18:25 Moses chose capable men from all Israel, and he made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 18:26 They judged the people under normal circumstances; the difficult cases they would bring to Moses, but every small case they would judge themselves.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Exo 18:1

Jethro to congratulate the happiness of Israel, and particularly the honour of Moses his son-in-law; comes to rejoice with them, as one that had a true respect both for them and for their God. And also to bring Moses's wife and children to him. It seems he had sent them back, probably from the inn where his wife's lothness to have her son circumcised had like to have cost him his life, Exo 4:25.

Wesley: Exo 18:3

A stranger, designing thereby not only a memorial of his own condition, but a memorandum to this son of his, for we are all strangers upon earth.

Wesley: Exo 18:4

My God a help: it looks back to his deliverance from Pharaoh, when he made his escape after the slaying of the Egyptian; but if this were the son that was circumcised in the inn, I would rather translate it, The Lord is mine help, and will deliver me from the sword of Pharaoh, which he had reason to expect would be drawn against him, when he was going to fetch Israel out of bondage.

Wesley: Exo 18:11

That the God of Israel is greater than all pretenders; all deities, that usurp divine honours: he silenceth them, subdues them all, and is himself the only living and true God. He is also higher than all princes and potentates, who also are called gods, and has both an incontestable authority over them, and an irresistible power to control them; he manages them all as he pleaseth, and gets honour upon them how great soever they are. Now know I: he knew it before, but now he knew it better; his faith grew up to a full assurance, upon this fresh evidence;

Wesley: Exo 18:11

The magicians or idols of Egypt, or Pharaoh and his grandees, opposing God, and setting up in competition with him, he was above them. The magicians were baffled, Pharaoh humbled, his powers broken, and Israel rescued out of their hands.

Wesley: Exo 18:12

And probably offered it himself, for he was a priest in Midian, and a worshipper of the true God, and the priesthood was not yet settled in Israel.

Wesley: Exo 18:12

Soberly, thankfully, in the fear of God; and their talk such as became saints. Thus we must eat and drink to the glory of God; as those that believe God's eye is upon us.

Wesley: Exo 18:13

To answer enquiries; to acquaint them with the will of God in doubtful cases, and to explain the laws of God that were already given.

Wesley: Exo 18:15

And happy was it for them that they had such an oracle to consult. Moses was faithful both to him that appointed him, and to them that consulted him,

Wesley: Exo 18:15

His business was not to make laws, but to make known God's laws: his place was but that of a servant.

Wesley: Exo 18:16

And if the people were as quarrelsome one with another as they were with God, he had many causes brought before him, and the more because their trials put them to no expence.

Wesley: Exo 18:17

Not convenient either for thee or them.

Wesley: Exo 18:19

That was an honour which it was not fit any other should share with him in. Also whatever concerned the whole congregation must pass through his hand, Exo 18:20. But, he appointed judges in the several tribes and families, which should try causes between man and man, and determine them, which would be done with less noise, and more dispatch than in the general assembly. Those whose gifts and stations are most eminent may yet be greatly furthered in their work by the assistance of those that are every way their inferiors. This is Jethro's advice; but he adds two qualifications to his counsel. That great care should be taken in the choice of the persons who should be admitted into this trust; it was requisite that they should be men of the best character. For judgment and resolution, able men: men of good sense, that understood business; and bold men, that would not be daunted by frowns or clamours. Clear heads and stout hearts make good judges. For piety, such as fear God, who believe there is a God above them, whose eye is upon them, to whom they are accountable, and whose judgment they stand in awe of. Conscientious men, that dare not do an ill thing, though they could do it never so secretly and securely. For honesty, men of truth, whose word one may take, and whose fidelity one may rely upon. For a generous contempt of worldly wealth, hating covetousness, not only not seeking bribes, or aiming to enrich themselves, but abhorring the thought of it. That he should attend God's direction in the case, Exo 18:23. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so - Jethro knew that Moses had a better counsellor than he was, and to his counsel he refers him.

Wesley: Exo 18:24

When he came to consider the thing, he saw the reasonableness of it, and resolved to put it in practice, which he did soon after, when he had received directions from God. Those are not so wise as they would be thought to be, who think themselves too wise to be counselled; for a wise man will hear, and will increase learning, and not slight good counsel, though given by an inferior.

JFB: Exo 18:1-5

It is thought by many eminent commentators that this episode is inserted out of its chronological order, for it is described as occurring when the Israelites were "encamped at the mount of God." And yet they did not reach it till the third month after their departure from Egypt (Exo 19:1-2; compare Deu 1:6, Deu 1:9-15).

JFB: Exo 18:6

See Exo 4:20.

JFB: Exo 18:7

Their salutations would be marked by all the warm and social greetings of Oriental friends (see on Exo 4:27) --the one going out to "meet" the other, the "obeisance," the "kiss" on each side of the head, the silent entrance into the tent for consultation; and their conversation ran in the strain that might have been expected of two pious men, rehearsing and listening to a narrative of the wonderful works and providence of God.

JFB: Exo 18:12

This friendly interview was terminated by a solemn religious service--the burnt offerings were consumed on the altar, and the sacrifices were peace offerings, used in a feast of joy and gratitude at which Jethro, as priest of the true God, seems to have presided, and to which the chiefs of Israel were invited. This incident is in beautiful keeping with the character of the parties, and is well worthy of the imitation of Christian friends when they meet in the present day.|| 02013||1||14||0||@on the morrow . . . Moses sat to judge the people, &c.==--We are here presented with a specimen of his daily morning occupations; and among the multifarious duties his divine legation imposed, it must be considered only a small portion of his official employments. He appears in this attitude as a type of Christ in His legislative and judicial characters.

JFB: Exo 18:12

Governors in the East seat themselves at the most public gate of their palace or the city, and there, amid a crowd of applicants, hear causes, receive petitions, redress grievances, and adjust the claims of contending parties.

JFB: Exo 18:17

Not good either for Moses himself, for the maintenance of justice, or for the satisfaction and interests of the people. Jethro gave a prudent counsel as to the division of labor [Exo 18:21-22], and universal experience in the Church and State has attested the soundness and advantages of the principle.

JFB: Exo 18:23

Jethro's counsel was given merely in the form of a suggestion; it was not to be adopted without the express sanction and approval of a better and higher Counsellor; and although we are not informed of it, there can be no doubt that Moses, before appointing subordinate magistrates, would ask the mind of God, as it is the duty and privilege of every Christian in like manner to supplicate the divine direction in all his ways.

Clarke: Exo 18:1

When Jethro, the priest of Midian, etc. - Concerning this person and his several names, See Clarke’ s note on Exo 2:15, See Clarke’ s note on Exo 2:16, See Clarke’ s note on Exo 2:18, See Clarke’ s note on Exo 3:1, See Clarke’ s note on Exo 4:20, See Clarke’ s note on Exo 4:24. Jethro was probably the son of Reuel, the father-in-law of Moses, and consequently the brother-in-law of Moses; for the word חתן chothen , which we translate father-in-law, in this chapter means simply a relative by marriage. See Clarke’ s note on Exo 3:1.

Clarke: Exo 18:2

After he had sent her back - Why Zipporah and her two sons returned to Midian, is not certainly known. From the transaction recorded Exo 4:20, Exo 4:24, it seems as if she had been alarmed at the danger to which the life of one of her sons had been exposed, and fearing worse evils, left her husband and returned to her father. It is however possible that Moses, foreseeing the troubles to which his wife and children were likely to be exposed had he taken them down to Egypt, sent them back to his father-in-law till it should please God to deliver his people

Jethro, now finding that God had delivered them, and totally discomfited the Egyptians, their enemies, thought it proper to bring Zipporah and her sons to Moses, while he was in the vicinity of Horeb.

Clarke: Exo 18:3

The name of the one was Gershom - See Clarke’ s note on Exo 2:22.

Clarke: Exo 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 Num 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 Exo 19:1, Exo 19:2, that they were not yet come to Horeb, the mount of God, and that they did not arrive there till the third month after their departure from Egypt; and the transactions with which this account is connected certainly took place in the second month; see Exo 16:1

2.    Moses, in Deu 1:6, Deu 1:9, Deu 1:10, Deu 1:12-15, relates that when they were about to depart from Horeb, which was on the 20th day of the second month of the second year from their leaving Egypt, that he then complained that he was not able to bear the burden alone of the government of a people so numerous; and that it was at that time that he established judges and captains over thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens, which appears to be the very transaction recorded in this place; the measure itself being recommended by Jethro, and done in consequence of his advice

3.    From Num 10:11, Num 10:29, etc., we find that when the cloud was taken up, and the Israelites were about to depart from Horeb, that Moses addressed Hobab, who is supposed to have been the same as Jethro, and who then was about to return to Midian, his own country, entreating him to stay with them as a guide while they traveled through the wilderness. It therefore seems necessary that the transaction recorded in this chapter should be inserted Numbers 10 between the 10th and 11th verses. Num 10:10-11

4.    It has been remarked, that shortly after they had departed from Sinai the dispute took place between Miriam, Aaron, and Moses, concerning the Ethiopian woman Zipporah whom he had married, (see Num 12:1, etc.); and this is supposed to have taken place shortly after she had been brought back by Jethro

5.    In the discourse between Moses and Jethro, mentioned in this chapter, we find that Moses speaks of the statutes and laws of the Lord as things already revealed and acknowledged, which necessarily implies that these laws had already been given, (Exo 18:16), which we know did not take place till several months after the transactions mentioned in the preceding chapters

6.    Jethro offers burnt-offerings and sacrifices to God apparently in that way in which they were commanded in the law. Now the law respecting burnt-offerings was not given till after the transactions mentioned here, unless we refer this chapter to a time posterior to that in which it appears in this place. See Clarke’ s note on Exo 18:12

From all these reasons, but particularly from the two first and the two last, it seems most likely that this chapter stands out of its due chronological order, and therefore I have adjusted the chronology in the margin to the time in which, from the reasons above alleged, I suppose these transactions to have taken place; but the matter is not of much importance, and the reader is at liberty to follow the common opinion. As Moses had in the preceding chapter related the war with Amalek and the curse under which they were laid, he may be supposed to have introduced here the account concerning Jethro the Midianite, to show that he was free from that curse, although the Midianites and the Kenites, the family of Jethro, were as one people, dwelling with the Amalekites. See Jdg 1:16; 1Ch 2:55; 1Sa 15:6. For although the Kenites were some of those people whose lands God had promised to the descendants of Abraham, (see Gen 15:18, Gen 15:19), yet, in consideration of Jethro, the relative of Moses, all of them who submitted to the Hebrews were suffered to live in their own country; the rest are supposed to have taken refuge among the Edomites and Amalekites. See Calmet, Locke, etc.

Clarke: Exo 18:6

And he said unto Moses - That is, by a messenger; in consequence of which Moses went out to meet him, as is stated in the next verse, for an interview had not yet taken place. This is supported by reading הנה hinneh , behold, for אני ani , I, which is the reading of the Septuagint and Syriac, and several Samaritan MSS.; instead therefore of I, thy father, we should read, Behold thy father, etc. - Kennicott’ s Remarks.

Clarke: Exo 18:7

And did obeisance - וישתחו vaiyishtachu , he bowed himself down, (See Clarke’ s note on Gen 17:3, and See Clarke’ s note on Exo 4:31); this was the general token of respect. And kissed him; the token of friendship. And they asked each other of their welfare; literally, and they inquired, each man of his neighbor, concerning peace or prosperity; the proof of affectionate intercourse. These three things constitute good breeding and politeness, accompanied with sincerity

Clarke: Exo 18:7

And they came into the tent - Some think that the tabernacle is meant, which it is likely had been erected before this time; see Clarke’ s note on Exo 18:5. Moses might have thought proper to take his relative first to the house of God, before he brought him to his own tent.

Clarke: Exo 18:9

And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness - Every part of Jethro’ s conduct proves him to have been a religious man and a true believer. His thanksgiving to Jehovah (Exo 18:10) is a striking proof of it; he first blesses God for the preservation of Moses, and next for the deliverance of the people from their bondage.

Clarke: Exo 18:11

Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods - Some think that Jethro was now converted to the true God; but it is very probable that he enjoyed this blessing before he knew any thing of Moses, for it is not likely that Moses would have entered into an alliance with this family had they been heathens. Jethro no doubt had the true patriarchal religion

Clarke: Exo 18:11

Wherein they dealt proudly - Acting as tyrants over the people of God; enslaving them in the most unprincipled manner, and still purposing more tyrannical acts. He was above them - he showed himself to be infinitely superior to all their gods, by the miracles which he wrought. Various translations have been given of this clause; the above I believe to be the sense.

Clarke: Exo 18:12

Jethro - took a burnt-offering - עלה olah . Though it be true that in the patriarchal times we read of a burnt-offering, (see Gen 22:2, etc)., yet we only read of one in the case of Isaac, and therefore, though this offering made by Jethro is not a decisive proof that the law relative to burnt-offerings, etc., had already been given, yet, taken with other circumstances in this account, it is a presumptive evidence that the meeting between Moses and Jethro took place after the erection of tabernacle. See Clarke’ s note on Exo 18:5

Clarke: Exo 18:12

Sacrifices for God - זבחים zebachim , slain beasts, as the word generally signifies. We have already seen that sacrifices were instituted by God himself as soon as sin entered into our world; and we see that they were continued and regularly practiced among all the people who had the knowledge of the only true God, from that time until they became a legal establishment. Jethro, who was a priest, (Exo 2:16), had a right to offer these sacrifices; nor can there be a doubt of his being a worshipper of the true God, for those Kenites, from whom the Rechabites came, were descended from him; 1Ch 2:55. See also Jeremiah 35

Clarke: Exo 18:12

And Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel to eat bread - The burnt-offering was wholly consumed; every part was considered as the Lord’ s portion, and therefore it was entirely burnt up. The other sacrifices mentioned here were such that, after the blood had been poured out before God, the officers and assistants might feed on the flesh. Thus, in ancient times, contracts were made and covenants sealed; See Clarke’ s note on Gen 15:13, etc. It is very likely, therefore, that the sacrifices offered on this occasion, were those on the flesh of which Aaron and the elders of Israel feasted with Jethro

Clarke: Exo 18:12

Before God - Before the tabernacle, where God dwelt; for it is supposed that the tabernacle was now erected. See Clarke’ s note on Exo 18:5; and see Deu 12:5-7, and 1Ch 29:21, 1Ch 29:22, where the same form of speech, before the Lord, is used, and plainly refers to his manifested presence in the tabernacle.

Clarke: Exo 18:13

To judge the people - To hear and determine controversies between man and man, and to give them instruction in things appertaining to God

Clarke: Exo 18:13

From the morning unto the evening - Moses was obliged to sit all day, and the people were continually coming and going.

Clarke: Exo 18:15

The people come unto me to inquire of God - To know the mind and will of God on the subject of their inquiries. Moses was the mediator between God and the people; and as they believed that all justice and judgment must come from him, therefore they came to Moses to know what God had spoken.

Clarke: Exo 18:16

I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws - These words are so very particular that they leave little room for doubt that the law had been given. Such words would scarcely have been used had not the statutes and laws been then in existence. And this is one of the proofs that the transaction mentioned here stands out of its due chronological order; See Clarke’ s note on Exo 18:5.

Clarke: Exo 18:18

Thou wilt surely wear away - נבל תבל nabol tibbol , in wearing way, thou wilt wear away - by being thus continually employed, thou wilt soon become finally exhausted. And this people that is with thee; as if he had said, "Many of them are obliged to wait so long for the determination of their suit that their patience must be soon necessarily worn out, as there is no one to hear every cause but thyself."

Clarke: Exo 18:19

I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee - Jethro seems to have been a man of great understanding and prudence. His advice to Moses was most appropriate and excellent; and it was probably given under the immediate inspiration of God, for after such sacrificial rites, and public acknowledgment of God, the prophetic spirit might be well expected to descend and rest upon him. God could have showed Moses the propriety and necessity of adopting such measures before, but he chose in this case to help man by man, and in the present instance a permanent basis was laid to consolidate the union of the two families, and prevent all future misunderstandings.

Clarke: Exo 18:20

Thou shalt teach them ordinances - חקים chukkim , all such precepts as relate to the ceremonies of religion and political economy. And laws, התורת hattoroth , the instructions relative to the whole system of morality

Clarke: Exo 18:20

And shalt show them the way - אה הדרך eth hadderech , That very Way, that only way, which God himself has revealed, and in which they should walk in order to please him, and get their souls everlastingly saved

Clarke: Exo 18:20

And the work that they must do - For it was not sufficient that they should know their duty both to God and man, but they must Do it too; יעשון yaasun , they must do it diligently, fervently, effectually; for the paragogic nun deepens and extends the meaning of the verb

What a very comprehensive form of a preacher’ s duty does this verse exhibit! 1. He must instruct the people in the nature, use, and importance of the ordinances of religion. 2. He must lay before them the whole moral law, and their obligations to fulfill all its precepts. 3. He must point out to each his particular duty, and what is expected of him in his situation, connections, etc. And, 4. He must set them all their work, and see that they do it. On such a plan as this he will have full opportunity to show the people, 1. Their sin, ignorance, and folly; 2. The pure and holy law which they have broken, and by which they are condemned; 3. The grace of God that bringeth salvation, by which they are to be justified and finally saved; and, 4. The necessity of showing their faith by their works; not only denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, but living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Clarke: Exo 18:21

Able men - Persons of wisdom, discernment, judgment, prudence, and fortitude; for who can be a ruler without these qualifications? Such as fear God - Who are truly religious, without which they will feel little concerned either for the bodies or souls of the people

Clarke: Exo 18:21

Men of truth - Honest and true in their own hearts and lives; speaking the truth, and judging according to the truth

Clarke: Exo 18:21

Hating covetousness - Doing all for God’ s sake, and love to man; laboring to promote the general good; never perverting judgment, or suppressing the testimonies of God, for the love of money or through a base, man-pleasing spirit, but expecting their reward from the mercy of God in the resurrection of the just

Clarke: Exo 18:21

Rulers of thousands, etc. - Millenaries, centurions, quinquagenaries, and decurions; each of these, in all probability, dependent on that officer immediately above himself. So the decurion, or ruler over ten, if he found a matter too hard for him, brought it to the quinquagenary, or ruler of fifty; if, in the course of the exercise of his functions, he found a cause too complicated for him to decide on, he brought it to the centurion, or ruler over a hundred. In like manner the centurion brought his difficult case to the millenary, or ruler over a thousand; the case that was too hard for him to judge, he brought to Moses; and the case that was too hard for Moses, he brought immediately to God. It is likely that each of these classes had a court composed of its own members, in which causes were heard and tried. Some of the rabbins have supposed that there were 600 rulers of thousands, 6000 rulers of hundreds, 12,000 rulers of fifties and 60,000 rulers of tens; making in the whole 78,600 officers. But Josephus says (Antiq., lib. iii., chap. 4) that Moses, by the advice of Jethro, appointed rulers over myriads, and then over thousands; these he divided into five hundreds, and again into hundreds, and into fifties; and appointed rulers over each of these, who divided them into thirties, and at last into twenties and tens; that each of these companies had a chief, who took his name from the number of persons who were under his direction and government. Allowing what Josephus states to be correct, some have supposed that there could not have been less than 129,860 officers in the Israelitish camp. But such computations are either fanciful or absurd. That the people were divided into thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens, we know, for the text states it, but we cannot tell precisely how many of such divisions there were, nor, consequently, the number of officers.

Clarke: Exo 18:23

If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee - Though the measure was obviously of the utmost importance, and plainly recommended itself by its expediency and necessity; yet Jethro very modestly leaves it to the wisdom of Moses to choose or reject it; and, knowing that in all things his relative was now acting under the immediate direction of God, intimates that no measure can be safely adopted without a positive injunction from God himself. As the counsel was doubtless inspired by the Divine Spirit, we find that it was sanctioned by the same, for Moses acted in every respect according to the advice he had received.

Calvin: Exo 18:1

1.When Jethro, the priest of Midian This chapter consists of two parts. First of all, the arrival of Jethro in the camp is related, and his congratulation of Moses on account of the prosperity of his enterprise, together with the praise and sacrifice rendered to God. Secondly, his proposed form of government for the people is set forth, in consequence of which judges and rulers were chosen, lest Moses should sink under his heavy task. The greater number of commentators think that Zipporah, having been enraged on account of her son’s circumcision, had turned back on their journey, and gone to live with her father; but to me this does not seem probable. For Moses would never have allowed his sons to be deprived of the redemption of which he was the minister; nor would it have been consistent that they should afterwards be appointed priests, of whom God was not the Redeemer. Besides, if he had deposited his wife and children in safety, and had advanced alone to the contest, he would have been deservedly suspected of deceit, or of excessive cowardice. Wherefore I have no doubt but that he underwent, together with his family, that miserable yoke of bondage by which they were long oppressed, and by this proof evidenced his faithfulness, so that greater authority might attend his vocation. The statement, then, in the second verse, “after he had sent her back,” I apply to Moses, because he had sent back his wife from the wilderness to visit her father, either having yielded to the desire which was natural to her as a woman, or, induced by his own feelings of piety, he had wished to show respect in this way to an old man nearly connected with him. There is something forced and cold in the words, which some would supply, “after he had sent back gifts.” The text runs very well thus, After Moses had sent back his wife, she was brought again by his father-in-law, thus returning and repaying his kindness.

Calvin: Exo 18:3

3.And her two sons It was remarked in its proper place, how distinguished a proof not only of faith, but of magnanimity and firmness Moses had manifested in giving these names to his sons. For we cannot doubt, but that he brought on himself the ill-will of his connections, as if he despised the country of his wife, by calling the one (Gershom) “a strange land;” and the name of his son continually cried out, that though he inhabited Midian, yet was he an alien in his heart, and though sojourning for a time, would afterwards seek another habitation. Whence also we may conjecture that he took them with him into Egypt, rather than banish from him these two pledges of his piety on account of the sudden anger and reproaches of his wife; since by their names he was daily reminded that God’s covenant was to be, preferred to all earthly advantages.

Calvin: Exo 18:5

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 have already explained why Mount Horeb is distinguished by the name of “the Mount of God.” The vision, indeed, which had been already vouchsafed to Moses there, rendered it worthy of this honorable title; but here, as before, there is reference made rather to the promulgation of the Law, whereby God consecrated the mountain to Himself.

Calvin: Exo 18:7

7.And Moses went out In the foregoing verse he had related what happened last, viz., that Jethro said, I am come, and have brought to thee thy wife and children; but this transposition is common in Hebrew. Now, then, he adds, that Moses went to meet him, and to pay him honor; and that they met each other with mutual kindness, and respectively performed the duties of affection. “To ask each other of their peace,” ¹⁹⁶ is tantamount to inquiring whether things were well and prospering. But the main point is, that Moses told him how gracious God had been to His people; for this was the drift of the whole of his address, that, when he had left his father-in-law, he had not yielded to the impulse of lightness, but had obeyed the call of God, as had afterwards been proved by His extraordinary aids and by heavenly prodigies.

Calvin: Exo 18:10

10.And Jethro said, Blessed Hence it appears that although the worship of God was then everywhere profaned by strange additions, yet Jethro was not so devoted to superstition as not to acknowledge and honor the true God. Nevertheless, the comparison which he subjoins, that “Jehovah is greater than all gods,” implies that he was not pure and free from all error. For, although the Prophets often so speak, it is with a different import; for sometimes God is exalted above the angels, that His sole eminence may appear, every heavenly dignity being reduced to its due order; sometimes, too, He is improperly called “Greater,” not as if the false gods had any rank, but that the greatness which is falsely and foolishly attributed to them in the world may be brought to naught. But Jethro here imagines, in accordance with the common notion, that a multitude of inferior gods are in subordination to the Most High. Thus, where the pure truth of God does not shine, religion is never uncorrupt and clear, but always has some dregs mixed with it. At the same time, Jethro seems to have made some advance; for in affirming that he now knows the power of God, he implies that he was more rightly informed than before; unless, perhaps, it might be preferred to understand this of the experimental knowledge, which confirms even believers, so that they more willingly submit themselves to God, whom they already knew before. Meanwhile, there is no doubt that by the name of Jehovah he designates the God of Israel; for, although they boasted everywhere that they worshipped the eternal God, yet by asserting the true Deity of the One God, he puts all others beneath Him. At any rate he confesses that, by the history of their deliverance, he was assured of the immense power of God, who had manifested himself in Israel; so as to despise, in comparison with Him, whatever gods were honored elsewhere in the world. The latter clause ¹⁹⁷ of verse (11) is unfinished; for it stands thus, “According to the word (or reason) wherein they dealt proudly against them;” thus the principal verb is wanting to express that God repaid the Egyptians the just wages of their cruelty; just as He denounces “judgment without mercy,” upon all who proudly and unmercifully mistreat their neighbors, (Jas 2:13,) according to the declaration of our Lord Jesus Christ, “With what measure ye mete,” etc. (Mat 7:2.) The exposition which some give seems too limited, viz., that the Egyptians, who had drowned the infants in the river, were themselves drowned in the Red Sea. I prefer, then, to extend it to every instance of punishment which they received.

Calvin: Exo 18:12

12.And Jethro Although I do not think that Jethro had previously sacrificed to idols, yet, because he worshipped an unknown God, with but a confused and clouded faith, it appears that this was his first sincere and legitimate sacrifice since the God of Israel had been more clearly known to him. We may gather from hence that it was duly offered, because Moses, and Aaron, and the elders openly professed them. selves his companions, and partook with him; for it is not merely said that they came to eat bread with him, but “before God;” which expression describes a sacred and solemn feast, a part and adjunct of the offering and divine worship. But they never would have willingly polluted themselves with the defilement’s of the Gentiles for the sake of gratifying an unholy man. It follows, then, that this was a token of his piety, since they did not hesitate to become partakers with him. We ought, indeed, to have God before our eyes, as often as we partake of his bounty; but we shall hereafter see, that this expression is peculiarly applied to sacrifices, wherein the faithful put themselves in the presence of God. Yet. do I not admit that Jethro slew the victims in right of the priesthood which he exercised in the land of Midian; but because there was more liberty, as will be explained in its place, before the Law was prescribed by God. It is my decided opinion that by the word “bread,” the manna is incontestably meant.

Calvin: Exo 18:13

13.And it came to pass A memorable circumstance, and one well worth knowing, is here introduced. In that form of government over which God presided, and which He honored with extraordinary manifestations of His glory, there was something deserving of reprehension, which Jethro corrected; and again, Moses himself, the mighty Prophet, and with whom alone God was thus familiar, was deservedly reproved for inconsiderately wearing away both himself and the people by excessive labor. It was a proof of his illustrious virtue and mental heroism to undergo so many troubles, to endure so much fatigue, and not to be subdued by weariness from daily exposing himself to new toils. It betrayed also a magnanimity never sufficiently to be praised, that he should occupy himself gratuitously for this perverse and wicked people, and never desist from his purpose, although he experienced an unworthy return for his kind efforts. For we have seen him to have been often assailed by reproaches and contumelies, and assaulted by chidings and threats; so that it is more than marvelous that his patience, so constantly abused, was not altogether worn out. In this, assuredly, many virtues will be discovered worthy of the highest praise; yet Jethro in these very praises finds occasion of fault. Whence we are warned that in all the most excellent acts of men some defect is ever lurking, and that scarcely any exists so perfect in every respect as to be free from any stain. Let all those, then, who are called on to be rulers of mankind know, that however diligently they may exercise their office, something still may be wanting, if the best plan that they adopt be brought to examination. Therefore let all, whether kings or magistrates, or pastors of the Church, know, that whilst they strain every nerve to fulfill their duties, something will always remain which may admit of correction and improvement. Here, too, it is worth while to remark, that no single mortal can be sufficient to do everything, however many and various may be the endowments wherein he excels. For who shall equal Moses, whom we have still seen to be unequal to the burden, when he undertook the whole care of governing the people? Let, then, God’s servants learn to measure carefully their powers, lest they should wear out, by ambitiously embracing too many occupations. For this propensity to engage in too many things ( πολυπραγμοσύνη) is a very common malady, and numbers are so carried away by it as not to be easily restrained. In order, therefore, that every one should confine himself within his own bounds, let us learn that in the human race God has so arranged our condition, that individuals are only endued with a certain measure of gifts, on which the distribution of offices depends. For as one ray of the sun does not illuminate the world, but all combine their operations as it were in one; so God, that He may retain men by a sacred and indissoluble bond in mutual society and good-will, unites one to another by variously dispensing His gifts, and not raising up any out of measure by his entire perfection. Therefore Augustine ¹⁹⁸ truly says that, God humbled His servant by this act; just as Paul reports, that buffetings were inflicted on him by the messenger of Satan, lest the grandeur of his revelations should exalt him too highly. ( 2Co 12:7.)

Calvin: Exo 18:15

15.And Moses said unto his father-in-law Moses replies ingenuously, as if on a very praiseworthy matter, like one unconscious of any fault; for he declared himself to be the minister of God, and the organ of His Spirit. Nor, indeed, could his faithfulness and integrity be called in question. He only erred in overwhelming himself with too much labor, and not considering himself privately, nor all the rest publicly. Yet a useful lesson may be gathered from his words. He says that disputants come “to inquire of God,” and that he makes them to know the statutes of God and His laws. Hence it follows that this is the object of political government, that God’s tribunal should be erected on earth, wherein He may exercise the judge’s office, to the end that judges and magistrates should not arrogate to themselves a power uncontrolled by any laws, nor allow themselves to decide anything arbitrarily or wantonly, nor, in a word, assume to themselves what belongs to God. Then, and then only, will magistrates acquit themselves properly:. when they remember that they are the representatives ( vicarios) of God. An obligation is here also imposed upon all private individuals, that they should not rashly appeal to the authority or assistance of judges, but should approach them with pure hearts, as if inquiring of God; for whosoever desires anything else except to learn from the mouth of the magistrate what is right and just, boldly and sacrilegiously violates the place which is dedicated to God.

Calvin: Exo 18:17

17.And Moses’ father-in-law said He does not absolutely condemn the whole system which Moses had before adopted, after the manner of morose, or froward, or ambitious men who, by carping at some trifle, obscure the noble deeds of others; but by seeking only to correct a part of it, he detracts not from the just praise of Moses, and leaves the power which God had conferred upon him untouched. Herein his moderation is worth observing, for he does not abuse this pretext of a particular error, so as to upset the due order of things; but only advises Moses how he may usefully execute the office which God had conferred upon him.

Calvin: Exo 18:19

19.I will give thee counsel Jethro dares, indeed, to promise success, if Moses will obey his counsel; yet does he not proudly boast that this will be the fruit of his own prudence, but ascribes it to God’s blessing and grace, if he prospers even when nothing is established but on the best system. For this is the import of the expression, that a counsel occurs to him, which if Moses follows, God shall bless him. Nor yet does he reprove Moses, as if God had not been thus far with his pious zeal and industry, but rather hints that God is the author of this counsel, which He will follow up with His grace. In sum, he does not state it to be his Object to diminish in the smallest degree the grace which Moses had already experienced; but to point out a plan, of which God will, by its result, show His approbation. Then follows the other point to which I have alluded, viz., that he does not rob Moses of his authority, so as to overturn his call from God, but rather by exhorting him to proceed, desires that what God has once ordained should be firm and inviolable. It is well also for us diligently to consider that counsel be taken according to circumstances and expediency, so that there be no departure from the ordinance of God; because it is sinful to entertain the question whether we should obey God or not. Accursed, then, are the deliberations wherein it is proposed to alter anything in God’s Word, or to withdraw ourselves from the bounds of our calling. We have said that the burden whereby Moses was weighed down was not of God’s imposing; but only had he been set over the people as their leader, as far as his ability permitted. Jethro leaves this unaffected, and thus confirms by subscribing, as it were, to the decree of heaven. Because he was chosen to be as an interpreter, and God familiarly admitted him as the mediator between Him and His people, Jethro enjoins him to continue in the discharge of these duties. But because the possession of the supreme government did not interfere with the duty of a Prophet, he desired also the greater matters to be referred to him; for I so interpret the expressions, that Moses was to be “to God-ward,” for the delivery of the rule of piety, and for the performance of the prophetical office, whilst the weightier causes were to be referred by the rulers to him, that every one might have justice done him.

Calvin: Exo 18:21

21.Moreover, thou shalt ¹⁹⁹ provide out of all the people Literally so, “thou shalt provide;” meaning, thou shalt choose out, and take the most worthy, so that such an office be not entrusted rashly to any one that offers. But this was most reasonable, among a free people, that the judges should not be chosen for their wealth or rank, but for their superiority in virtue. Yet although it be right that regard should be chiefly had to virtue, so that if any one of the lower orders be found more suitable than others, he should be preferred to the noble or the rich; still should any one choose to, lay this down as a perpetual and necessary rule, he will be justly accounted contentious. Jethro enumerates four qualifications which must be principally regarded in the appointment of judges, viz., ability in business, the fear of God, integrity, and the contempt, of riches, not to exclude others whereof, as we shall soon see, mention is made in the first chapter of Deuteronomy, but to signify that all are not qualified, nay, that extraordinary virtues are required which, by synecdoche, he embraces in these four. The words which we translate “brave men,” ²⁰⁰ ( viros fortes,) are, in the Hebrew, “men of bravery,” ( viros fortitudinis;) by which title some think that strong and laborious men are described. But in my opinion, Moses rather designates strenuous and courageous persons, whom he opposes not only to the inactive, but to the timid and cowardly also. But because vigor of mind as well as of body is but frail without the fear of God, he adds piety in the second place, in that they should exercise their office as having an account to render to God. “Truth” is opposed not only to deception and gross falsehoods, but to popularity-hunting, flattering promises, and other crooked arts, which tend to corrupt justice. Lastly, hatred of covetousness is demanded; because nothing is more antagonistic to justice than eagerness for gain; and since snares are so constantly set for judges by the offers of pecuniary advantage, they would not be duly fortified against this mode of corruption, unless they earnestly detested avarice.

Calvin: Exo 18:23

23.If thou shalt do this thing What immediately follows, “and God command thee so,” may be taken in connection with the beginning of the verse, as if, in self-correction, Jethro made the limitation, that he did not wish his counsel to be obeyed, unless God should approve of it. Others extend it more widely, that if Moses followed God’s commands in all things, this moderation of his duties would be useful. However you take it, Jethro declares that he would have nothing conceded to him, which should derogate from God’s supreme authority; but that there was nothing to prevent Moses from following, as he had done, God as his leader, and still adopting the proposed plan. Yet he signifies that this was to be but temporary, when he adds, that the people should go in peace or prosperously into the land of Canaan. Jethro, then, had no wish to establish a law for posterity; but points out a remedy for present inconveniences, and a provisional arrangement, ²⁰¹ until the people should obtain a peaceful resting-place.

Calvin: Exo 18:24

24.So Moses hearkened Here is a. remarkable instance of modesty, that Moses is not indisposed to submit himself to the counsel of his father-in-law. For although Jethro was his superior in age and in degree of affinity, in other respects he was far inferior to him. This yielding, then, of Moses to his authority, lays down a rule for all the greatest and most excellent Doctors, that they should not refuse lo receive the admonitions of those whom they admit to teach rightly, although they are not of such high dignity. For Cyprian ²⁰² truly declares that none is a good doctor who is not also docile. It is probable that the old man immediately returned home, not in contempt, or from his dislike to labor or fatigue, but ²⁰³ on account of his age; but we shall hereafter see in its proper place that his son remained in the camp.

TSK: Exo 18:1

Jethro : Exo 2:16, Exo 2:21, Exo 3:1, Exo 4:18; Num 10:29; Jdg 4:11

heard : Psa 34:2, Psa 44:1, Psa 77:14, Psa 77:15, Psa 78:4, Psa 105:5, Psa 105:43, Psa 106:2, Psa 106:8; Jer 33:9; Zec 8:23; Gal 1:23, Gal 1:24

God : Act 7:35, Act 7:36, Act 14:27, Act 15:12, Act 21:19, Act 21:20; Rom 15:18

done : Exod. 7:1-15:27; Jos 2:10, Jos 9:9; Neh 9:10, Neh 9:11; Psa 77:14, Psa 77:15, Psa 78:50-53; Psa 105:36-41, Psa 106:8-11, Psa 136:10-16; Isa 63:11-13

TSK: Exo 18:2

Zipporah : Exo 2:21, Exo 4:25, Exo 4:26

TSK: Exo 18:3

two sons : Act 7:29

Gershom : i.e. A stranger there, Exo 2:22; Psa 39:12; Heb 11:13; 1Pe 2:11

TSK: Exo 18:4

Eliezer : i.e. my God is an help, Psa 46:1; Isa 50:7-9; Heb 13:6

delivered : Exo 2:15; Psa 18:1 *title Psa 18:48, Psa 34:4; Dan 6:22; Act 12:11; 2Co 1:8-10; 2Ti 4:17

TSK: Exo 18:5

Exo 3:1, Exo 3:12, Exo 19:11, Exo 19:20, Exo 24:16, Exo 24:17; 1Ki 19:8

TSK: Exo 18:6

said : i.e. by means of messengers sent beforehand, Mat 12:47

TSK: Exo 18:7

went : Gen 14:17, Gen 46:29; Num 22:36; Jdg 11:34; 1Ki 2:19; Act 28:15

did obeisance : Gen 18:2, Gen 19:1, Gen 33:3-7

kissed : Gen 29:13, Gen 31:28, Gen 33:4, Gen 45:15; Psa 2:12; Luk 7:45; Act 20:37

welfare : Heb. peace, Gen 43:27; 2Sa 11:7

TSK: Exo 18:8

told : Exo 18:1; Neh 9:9-15; Psa 66:16, Psa 71:17-20, Psa 105:1, Psa 105:2, Psa 145:4-12

and all the : Exo 15:22-24, Exo 16:3

come upon them : Heb. found them, Gen 44:34; Num 20:14; Neh 9:32 *marg.

how the Lord : Psa 78:42, Psa 78:43, Psa 81:7, Psa 106:10, Psa 107:2

TSK: Exo 18:9

Isa 44:23, Isa 66:10; Rom 12:10, Rom 12:15; 1Co 12:26

TSK: Exo 18:10

Gen 14:20; 2Sa 18:28; 1Ki 8:15; Psa 41:13, Psa 106:47, Psa 106:48; Luk 1:68; Eph 1:3; 1Th 3:9; 1Pe 1:3; Rev 5:11-13, Rev 19:1-6

TSK: Exo 18:11

Now I : Exo 9:16; 1Ki 17:24; 2Ki 5:15

the Lord : Exo 15:11; 1Ch 16:25; 2Ch 2:5; Psa 95:3, Psa 97:9, Psa 135:5

in the thing : Exo 1:10, Exo 1:16, Exo 1:22, Exo 5:2, Exo 5:7, Exo 14:8, Exo 14:18

proudly : Exo 9:17, Exo 10:3; 1Sa 2:3; Neh 9:10, Neh 9:16, Neh 9:29; Job 40:11, Job 40:12; Psa 31:23; Psa 119:21; Dan 4:37; Luk 1:51; Jam 4:6; 1Pe 5:5

TSK: Exo 18:12

took : Exo 24:5; Gen 4:4, Gen 8:20, Gen 12:7, Gen 26:25, Gen 31:54; Job 1:5, Job 42:8

Aaron : Exo 24:11; Lev 7:11-17; Deu 12:7, Deu 27:7; 1Ch 29:21, 1Ch 29:22; 2Ch 30:22; 1Co 10:18, 1Co 10:21, 1Co 10:31

eat bread : Exo 2:20; Gen 43:25; 2Sa 9:7; Job 42:11; Dan 10:3; Luk 14:1, Luk 14:15

TSK: Exo 18:13

Jdg 5:10; Job 29:7; Isa 16:5; Joe 3:12; Mat 23:2; Rom 12:8, Rom 13:6

TSK: Exo 18:15

to inquire : Exo 18:19, Exo 18:20; Lev 24:12-14; Num 15:34, Num 27:5

TSK: Exo 18:16

a matter : Exo 23:7, Exo 24:14; Deu 17:8-12; 2Sa 15:3; Job 31:13; Act 18:14, Act 18:15; 1Co 6:1

one and another : Heb. a man and his fellow, Exo 2:13

make : Lev 24:15; Num 15:35, Num 27:6-11, Num 36:6-9; Deu 4:5, Deu 5:1, Deu 6:1; 1Sa 12:23; Mat 28:20; 1Th 4:1, 1Th 4:2

TSK: Exo 18:17

not good : Exo 18:14; Deu 1:12; 1Ki 3:8, 1Ki 3:9, 1Ki 13:18; 2Ch 19:6; Mat 17:4; Joh 13:6-10

TSK: Exo 18:18

Thou wilt surely wear away : Heb. Fading thou wilt fade, 2Co 12:15; Phi 2:30; 1Th 2:8, 1Th 2:9

thou art : Num 11:14-17; Deu 1:9-12; Act 6:1-4

TSK: Exo 18:19

Hearken : Exo 18:24; Pro 9:9

God shall : Exo 3:12, Exo 4:12; Gen 39:2; Deu 20:1; Jos 1:9; 2Sa 14:17; Mat 28:20

Be thou : Exo 18:15, Exo 4:16, Exo 20:19; Deu 5:5

bring : Num 27:5

TSK: Exo 18:20

teach : Exo 18:16; Deu 4:1, Deu 4:5, Deu 5:1, Deu 6:1, Deu 6:2, Deu 7:11; Neh 9:13, Neh 9:14

the way : 1Sa 12:23; Psa 32:8, Psa 143:8; Isa 30:21; Jer 6:16, Jer 42:3; Mic 4:2; 1Th 4:1

work : Deu 1:18; Eze 3:17; Mat 28:20; Mar 13:34; 2Th 3:6-12

TSK: Exo 18:21

Moreover : Deu 1:13-17; Act 6:3

able men : Exo 18:25; Deu 16:18; 1Ki 3:9-12; Pro 28:2

such as : Exo 23:2-9; Gen 22:12, Gen 42:18; 2Sa 23:3; 1Ki 18:3, 1Ki 18:12; 2Ch 19:5-10; Neh 5:9, Neh 7:2; Ecc 12:13; Luk 18:2, Luk 18:4

men : Job 29:16, Job 31:13; Isa 16:5, Isa 59:4, Isa 59:14, Isa 59:15; Jer 5:1; Eze 18:8; Zec 7:9; Zec 8:16

hating : Exo 23:8; Deu 16:18, Deu 16:19; 1Sa 8:3, 1Sa 12:3, 1Sa 12:4; Psa 26:9, Psa 26:10; Isa 33:15; Eze 22:12; Act 20:33; 1Ti 3:3, 1Ti 6:9-11; 2Pe 2:14, 2Pe 2:15

rulers of thousands : Whatever matter the decarch , or ruler over ten, could not decide, went to the pentecontarch , or ruler of fifty, and thence by degrees to the hecatontarch , or ruler over a hundred, to the chiliarch , or ruler over a thousand, to Moses, and at length to God himself. Each magistrate had the care or inspection of only ten men; the decarch superintended ten private characters; the hecatontarch ten decarchs ; and the chiliarch , ten hecatontarchs . Num 10:4; Deu 1:15; Jos 22:14; 1Sa 8:12

TSK: Exo 18:22

at all seasons : Exo 18:26; Rom 13:6

great : Lev 24:11; Num 15:33, Num 27:2, Num 36:1; Deu 1:17, Deu 17:8, Deu 17:9

they shall : Exo 18:18; Num 11:17

TSK: Exo 18:23

God : Exo 18:18; Gen 21:10-12; 1Sa 8:6, 1Sa 8:7, 1Sa 8:22; Act 15:2; Gal 2:2

and all this : Exo 16:29; Gen 18:33, Gen 30:25; 2Sa 18:3, 2Sa 19:39, 2Sa 21:17; Phi 1:24, Phi 1:25

TSK: Exo 18:24

Exo 18:2-5, Exo 18:19; Ezr 10:2, Ezr 10:5; Pro 1:5; 1Co 12:21

TSK: Exo 18:25

Exo 18:21; Deu 1:15; Act 6:5

TSK: Exo 18:26

at all : Exo 18:14, Exo 18:22

the hard causes : Exo 18:15, Exo 18:22; Deu 17:8; 1Ki 3:16-28, 1Ki 10:1; Job 29:16

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Exo 18:1

Jethro was, in all probability, the "brother-in-law"of Moses Exo 3:1. On the parting from Zipporah, see Exo 4:26.

Barnes: Exo 18:5

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.

Barnes: Exo 18:6

And he said ... - Or according to the Greek Version, "And it was told to Moses, saying, Lo, thy father in law Jether is come."

Barnes: Exo 18:7

Asked each other of their welfare - Addressed each other with the customary salutation, "Peace be unto you."

Barnes: Exo 18:11

Greater than all gods - See Exo 15:11. The words simply indicate a conviction of the incomparable might and majesty of Yahweh.

For in ... above them - i. e. the greatness of Yahweh was shown in those transactions wherein the Egyptians had thought to deal haughtily and cruelly against the Israelites. Jethro refers especially to the destruction of the Egyptian host in the Red Sea.

Barnes: Exo 18:12

A burnt offering and sacrifices - This verse clearly shows that Jethro was recognized as a priest of the true God, and is of great importance in its bearings upon the relation between the Israelites and their congeners, and upon the state of religion among the descendants of Abraham.

Barnes: Exo 18:13

From the morning unto the evening - It may be assumed as at least probable that numerous cases of difficulty arose out of the division of the spoil of the Amalekites Exo 17:13, and causes would have accumulated during the journey from Elim.

Barnes: Exo 18:15

To enquire of God - The decisions of Moses were doubtless accepted by the people as oracles. The internal prompting of the Spirit was a sufficient guidance for him, and a sufficient authority for the people.

Barnes: Exo 18:18

Thou wilt surely wear away - From decay and exhaustion.

Barnes: Exo 18:19

Counsel - Jethro draws the distinction between the functions of the legislator and the judge.

To God-ward - Literally, "before God,"standing between them and God, both as His minister or representative and also as the representative of the people, their agent, so to speak, or deputy before God.

Barnes: Exo 18:20

Teach them - The Hebrew word is emphatic, and signifies "enlightenment."The text gives four distinct points:

(a) the "ordinances,"or specific enactments,

(b) "the laws,"or general regulations,

© "the way,"the general course of duty,

(d) "the works,"each specific act.

Barnes: Exo 18:21

Able men - The qualifications are remarkably complete, ability, piety, truthfulness, and unselfishness. From Deu 1:13, it appears that Moses left the selection of the persons to the people, an example followed by the Apostles; see Act 6:3.

Rulers of thousands ... - The numbers appear to be conventional, corresponding nearly, but not exactly, to the military, or civil divisions of the people: the largest division (1,000) is used as an equivalent of a gens under one head, Num 1:16; Num 10:4; Jos 22:14.

The word "rulers,"sometimes rendered "princes,"is general, including all ranks of officials placed in command. The same word is used regularly on Egyptian monuments of the time of Moses.

Barnes: Exo 18:23

To their place - i. e. to Canaan, which is thus recognized by Jethro as the appointed and true home of Israel. Compare Num 10:29-30.

Barnes: Exo 18:24

Hearkened - Nothing can be more characteristic of Moses, who combines on all occasions distrust of himself and singular openness to impressions, with the wisdom and sound judgment which chooses the best course when pointed out.

Poole: Exo 18:2

From the way to Egypt, upon the occasion mentioned Exo 4:24,25 , and because he found by experience that she was likely to hinder him from, or discourage him in, the discharge of his great and dangerous office, and to give an ill example to the Israelites.

Poole: Exo 18:5

Jethro came not at this time, but after the delivery of the law at Mount Sinai; as it may appear,

1. Because he finds them encamped, as it here follows, at the mount of God, i.e. Sinai, whither they came not till Exo 19:2 .

2. Because the laws of sacrifices were given before his coming, as appears from Exo 18:12 .

3. Because the execution of this counsel here given about the choice of magistrates, Exo 18:19 , is related after the Israelites’ departure from Sinai, Deu 1:7 , &c. And therefore here is a transposal in this history, which is also frequent in other places of Holy Scripture.

Poole: Exo 18:6

He spoke, not by word of mouth, as the next verse showeth, but either by a letter, or by a messenger, as that word is used, Mat 8:6,8 , compared with Luk 7:3,6 .

Poole: Exo 18:7

Of their welfare Heb. of their peace , i.e. prosperity and all happiness, which also they wished one to the other, as this phrase implies. See 1Sa 10:4 Psa 122:6 .

Poole: Exo 18:8

For Israel’ s sake, or, concerning Israel’ s business .

Poole: Exo 18:11

Now I know viz. more clearly and by certain experience; as that phrase signifies, Gen 22:12 1Ki 17:18,24 . For otherwise it is more than probable that Jethro had the knowledge of the true God before this time, not only because he was the great-grandchild of Abraham, but also because of his long conversation with a person of so great knowledge, and wisdom, and piety, as Moses was.

Wherein they dealt proudly either,

1. Their false gods, who wrought strange things in and by their servants the magicians, who contended with Moses, and proudly boasted of their skill as not a whit inferior to that of Moses, but at last were forced to yield up the cause, Exo 8:19 ; or rather,

2. The Egyptians, spoken of Exo 18:10 , who dealt proudly, and scornfully, and tyrannically with the Israelites, but God showed himself to be above them, and above their king; though Pharaoh would not own him for his superior, Exo 5:2 , but lift up his horn against God, and against his people: but the Lord brought that proud prince upon his knees, and forced him oft to confess his faults, and to become suppliant to Moses for deliverance from the plagues; and at last, when he continued incorrigible, he drowned him in the sea.

Poole: Exo 18:12

Took a burnt-offering i.e. gave, or offered; as that verb is used Psa 68:18 , compared with Eph 4:8 ; also Exo 25:2 . Which he did, that he might publicly testify both his embracing of the true religion, and his thankfulness to God for the great deliverance given to his people, wherein also himself and family were concerned. And he took or offered these, not immediately, or by himself, (which would have seemed a presumptuous and unwarrantable action for a stranger to undertake in the church of Israel,) but by those who were appointed to do it; in which sense David is said to have sacrificed, 2Sa 24:25 , and Solomon, 1Ki 8:63 , and all those who brought their offerings to the priests to offer for them.

A burnt offering and sacrifices to wit, of thanksgiving, as is expressed Exo 24:5 ; for part of these the offerers, with others, did eat, Lev 7:15 , whereas no man might eat of the burnt-offerings, Lev 1:9 .

To eat bread i.e. to feast together of the remainders of the sacrifices.

Before God either before the cloudy pillar; or rather, before the altar, and in the place of public worship; for some such place undoubtedly they had, though the tabernacle was not yet built; and that was the place appointed for such feasts. See Deu 12:7 27:7 1Ch 29:21 Psa 116:17 .

Poole: Exo 18:13

Moses sat as a civil magistrate, by hearing and determining causes and controversies arising among the people.

Poole: Exo 18:15

i.e. Of the mind and will of God, both as to his worship and service and as to their mutual duties to one another. 1Sa 9:9 .

Poole: Exo 18:16

i.e. Do interpret and apply them to their several cases and circumstances.

Poole: Exo 18:17

Not convenient either for thyself or for the people.

Poole: Exo 18:18

Thou wilt surely waste and destroy thy health and strength by excessive labour of mind and body;

and this people by tedious attendance and expectation ere their turn comes for the decision of their matters.

Poole: Exo 18:19

God shall be with thee i.e. I doubt not God will assist and bless thee, as well in the course which I propose to thee, as in that which thou now dost use, because God is a God of order, and loves order; and he is a God of mercy, and would not have thee destroy thyself in his work. Or it may be taken for a prayer, and God be with thee , i.e. bless and assist thee therein.

To Godward Heb. before God , i.e. in hard and weighty causes, which the inferior judges cannot determine, as it is explained Exo 18:22 ; where they need and seek direction from God, there thou shalt be as a mediator between God and them, to bring their matters to God , as it here follows, and to receive directions and commands from him. See Num 15:33,34 27:5,6 .

Poole: Exo 18:20

Thou alone shalt deliver and explain God’ s law to them, which they may apply to their particular causes and occasions, and so end their differences among themselves without giving thee any trouble.

Poole: Exo 18:21

Able men Heb. men of might , not for strength of body, but for greatness, resolution, courage, and constancy of mind, which is the best preservative against partiality and corruption in judgment, to which men of little minds, or narrow souls, are easily swayed by fears, or hopes, or gifts.

Such as fear God which will restrain them from all injustice, even when they have ability and opportunity to do wrong so cunningly or powerfully that they may escape the observation and censure of men.

Men of truth or, of faith , or faithful , such as love the truth, and diligently labour to find it out in all causes, and then pass a true and righteous sentence; not at all respecting persons, but only the truth and right of their causes; such as hate lies and slanders, and will severely rebuke and punish them. Hating covetousness: this, though included in the former, is particularly expressed, because gifts and bribes are the great corrupters of judges and judgments.

Poole: Exo 18:23

If God approve of the course which I suggest, to whose wisdom I submit my opinion. For Jethro might well think that Moses neither would nor might make so great an alteration in the government without consulting God about it, and expecting his answer. Others render the place thus, both God will give thee his commands , i.e. thou wilt have leisure to ask and take his counsel in all emergencies, which now thou hast not,

and thou wilt be able to endure

To their place to their several habitations, which are called men’ s places , Jud 7:7 9:55 19:28,29 ; where their calling and business lies, from which they are now diverted and detained by fruitless and wearisome attendances.

In peace orderly and quietly, having their minds much eased by this course, and their contentions soon ended.

Poole: Exo 18:24

This is one evidence of that meekness for which Moses is justly magnified, that he disdained not to receive advice from one so much his inferior in wisdom, and learning, and knowledge of the things of God. And God would have this wise counsel to come from Jethro, not from Moses himself, to show how variously he distributes his gifts, and to teach all men not to think too highly of themselves, nor to despise the counsels even of their inferiors.

Moses did all that he had said not immediately, but after he had received God’ s approbation, Num 11:16 , and the people’ s consent, Deu 1:14 .

Poole: Exo 18:25

Moses chose them not solely but together with the people, as appears from Deu 1:13 .

Haydock: Exo 18:1

Jethro. See chap. ii. 18. ---

Priest. Hebrew Cohen means also a prince. Both offices were performed by the heads of families, in the law of nature. (Worthington) ---

It is supposed that this interview took place later, and should be placed [at?] Numbers x. 10. (Calmet)

Haydock: Exo 18:2

Back, with her consent, when he was going to the court of Pharao. (Menochius) ---

Since he had the vision of God, St. Epiphanius says, he lived in continence with her. (Hœr. 78.)

Haydock: Exo 18:5

Mountain. Horeb, (chap. iii. 1,) or Sinai. (Menochius)

Haydock: Exo 18:6

Word. Hebrew, "And he said unto Moses, I, &c. 7. And Moses went out to meet," &c., which seems very strange, after he had been just talking with him. The authors of the Septuagint and Syriac read behold, instead of I. "It was told Moses. Behold thy," &c. Kennicott observes, that five Samaritan copies retain ene, "behold," instead of ani, "I," and thus obviate the nonsense which disturbs the reader of the present Hebrew.

Haydock: Exo 18:7

Worshipped, bending to the ground, according to the custom of the country. (Haydock) ---

Tent of the Lord, if it were then erected, and afterwards into that of Moses. (Calmet)

Haydock: Exo 18:9

Rejoiced. Septuagint, "was in an ecstacy," of admiration, mixed with joy. (Menochius)

Haydock: Exo 18:11

I know. I am now more convinced of this truth. Jethro instructed his family in these principles. The Rechabites were his descendants. (1 Paralipomenon ii. 55; Jeremias xxxv.) (Menochius) ---

Proudly. Hebrew, "because in the thing in which they did proudly, he was against, or above them." Something must be supplied. God turned the wisdom and arms of the Egyptians to their own confusion. (Calmet)

Haydock: Exo 18:12

Sacrifices. Peace-offerings, of which he might partake with the ancients. (Haydock) ---

Jethro being a stranger, and a servant of the true God, might perform this duty in person, even though we allow that the priesthood was restrained to the family of Aaron before this time with regard to the Hebrews. (Calmet) ---

Before God. St. Augustine, who supposes that the tabernacle was not yet erected, explains this in honour of God: but others, who believe this happened at the close of the year, say that the feast was made before the tabernacle, the house of God. (Menochius)

Haydock: Exo 18:17

Good, or convenient, either for yourself, or for the people. (Haydock)

Haydock: Exo 18:18

Foolish. Septuagint, "intolerable." ---

Labour. Hebrew, "thou wilt surely sink, or be wasted away."

Haydock: Exo 18:20

To do. Be a mediator between God and the people: explain their wants, and bring back his decision: but let inferior officers see them executed. (Haydock)

Haydock: Exo 18:21

Avarice. That they may not be bribed against their better knowledge. The wise, rich, and disinterested, must be appointed magistrates; such as may not be under any undue influence. Aristotle blames the Lacedemonians for entrusting such offices to people who had nothing. See Isaias iii. 7.

Haydock: Exo 18:23

Thou shalt . Hebrew, "and God shall order thee." Jethro does not wish his advice should be followed, till God had been consulted. (Calmet) ---

By his plan, he thought Moses would have time to confer more with God, and promote his own welfare, and the convenient dispatch of business. (Menochius)

Haydock: Exo 18:25

Tens. The Samaritan copy here inserts, from Deuteronomy i. 9 to 19, where this is related at greater length. The Septuagint also add to the other officers, the Grammatoeisagogeis, or Shoterim, mentioned in the same place, as lectors or scribes, whose business it perhaps was to present written requests.

Haydock: Exo 18:26

To him. Whether they regarded religious or civil matters. No appeal was made from an inferior or any other tribunal, but that of the supreme magistrate. (Calmet)

Gill: Exo 18:1

When Jethro the priest of Midian, Moses's father-in-law,.... The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan call him the prince of Midian, and so the word ^e is rendered in some versions; whose daughter Moses had married, and so was his father-in-law, of which see more in Exo 2:16.

heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people; the miracles he had wrought for them in Egypt, the dividing of the Red sea to make a way for them, the destruction of the Egyptians, providing them with bread and water in such a miraculous manner in the wilderness, and giving them victory over Amalek, and appearing always at the head of them in a pillar of cloud and fire:

and that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt: which was the greatest blessing of all, and for the sake of which so many wonderful things had been done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And now Midian being near to Egypt, it is not to be wondered at that Jethro should hear of these things, the fame of which went through all the countries round about, see Exo 15:14, though it is not improbable that Moses might send messengers to Midian to acquaint his father-in-law, his wife, and sons, of what the Lord had done for him, and by him.

Gill: Exo 18:2

Then Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses's wife,.... When he had heard of the above things, he determined to pay Moses a visit, and congratulate him on that account; and he took his daughter, the wife of Moses, along with him, to deliver her to her husband, to share with him in his cares and troubles; as to partake with him of his honours and dignity, so to bear part with him in his burdens, so far as she was capable of:

after he had sent her back: upon his call and mission to Egypt, he took his wife and children with him; but upon an affair which occurred in the inn by the way, he sent them back again to his father-in-law, where they had remained ever since, see Exo 4:24. Jarchi says this was done at meeting with Aaron his brother, Exo 4:27, and relates a conversation between them upon it. As that Aaron should say to him, who are these? to which he replied, this is my wife, I married her in Midian, and these are my sons: he further said to him, and where art thou carrying them? he replied, to Egypt; says he, by reason of those who are before there, we are in straits, and thou wilt add unto them; upon which he said to his wife, go back to thy father's house, and she took her sons and went thither. Kimchi ^f observes, that some render the words "after her gifts"; whose sense, according to Aben Ezra, is, after she had sent gifts to her husband; but others more probably interpret it of gifts sent by him to her to engage his father-in-law to let her come to him, as well as to prevail upon her to come; perhaps it may be better rendered, "after her messenger"; that is, either after the messenger sent to her by Moses, to acquaint her and her father of what had been done for him, or after the messenger she sent to him, to let him know that she intended shortly to be with him; though perhaps, after all, nearer to our version and others, it may be rendered, "after her dismissions" ^g; the dismission or sending away of her and her sons, as before related; for this is by no means to be interpreted of a divorce of her; after which she was brought again to her husband; for there is no reason to believe that ever anything of that kind had passed, as some have thought ^h: the plain case seems to be this, that Moses finding his family would be exposed to danger, or would be too great an incumbrance upon him in the discharge of his great work he had to do in Egypt, sent them back to his father-in-law until a fit opportunity should offer of their coming to him, as now did.

Gill: Exo 18:3

And her two sons,.... Those also Jethro took along with him and his daughter:

of which the name of the one was Gershom; which seems to be his firstborn, Exo 2:22, his name signifies a desolate stranger, as some, or, "there I was a stranger": the reason of which name follows agreeably thereunto:

for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land; meaning, not the land of Egypt, where he was born, and had lived forty years; but in the land of Midian, where he was when this son of his was born; and which name was given him partly to keep up the memory of his flight to Midian, and partly to instruct his son, that Midian, though his native place, was not his proper country where he was to dwell, but another, even the land of Canaan.

Gill: Exo 18:4

And the name of the other was Eliezer,.... Who seems to be his second son, and was that which was circumcised by Zipporah at the inn, and about which there was such a stir, Exo 4:24, and signifies "my God is help", or, his helper:

for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh; who, on hearing that Moses had killed an Egyptian, was wroth with him, and sought to slay him; and perhaps drew his sword for that purpose, but was prevented: however, this, in all human probability, would have been the case, that he would have fallen by his sword either in a private or public manner, had it not been for the interposition of divine Providence, and therefore he gave this name to his child, to be a standing memorial of it.

Gill: Exo 18:5

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, Exo 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 stands; which, according to Dr. Pocock ⁱ, is about a day and a half's journey from Mount Sinai, from whence the monks of Mount Sinai are chiefly supplied with fish ^k: it follows: where he encamped at the mount of God: at Horeb, where the Lord had appeared to Moses; and so the Targum of Jonathan adds,"where the glory of the Lord was revealed to Moses at the beginning;''and where, afterwards, the Lord, appeared again, and gave the law, and therefore is called the Mount of God; the one as well as the other being past when Moses wrote this book, and called the mountain by this name: it is matter of question at what time Jethro came hither, whether before or after the giving of the law: it seems, by the order in which this story is here placed, as if it was immediately after the battle with Amalek; and Saadiah Gaon is of opinion it was before the giving of the law; and one would think it most reasonable and natural that Jethro would take the first opportunity of visiting Moses, and that Moses would not long defer sending for his wife and children: but Aben Ezra thinks he did not come till the second year after the tabernacle was set up, since, in the context, mention is made of burnt offerings and sacrifices, and no account is given of a new altar built by Moses; and besides, he says, "I do make them know the statutes of God and his laws", Exo 18:16, and it is certain from hence, that the children of Israel were removed from Rephidim, and were now encamped at the mount of God, at Horeb; but whether they had got to the other side of the mount of Sinai as yet is not so clear; though it looks as if what Moses did, by the advice of Jethro, was after the law was given on Sinai, see Deu 1:6 so that, upon the whole, it seems as if this account, according to the order of time, should be placed after Num 10:28, or, as Dr. Lightfoot ^l thinks, between the tenth and eleventh verses of that chapter, and is put here to show that though Midian was near Amalek, as he observes, yet Jethro was exempt from the curse and destruction threatened to that, see 1Sa 15:6.

Gill: Exo 18:6

And he said unto Moses,.... By a messenger, as Jarchi: or by a written letter, as Aben Ezra: or, as the Septuagint version, "it was told to Moses, thy father", &c. for as yet he was not come to him, as appears by Moses going forth to meet him:

I thy father in law Jethro am come to thee: or, "am coming" ^m; for, as yet, he was not in his presence, and they were not personally present face to face: the Targum of Jonathan adds, "to become a proselyte"; but it seems that before, as well as now, he had been a worshipper of the true God, and always speaks like one that had had the fear of God before him continually:

and thy wife, and her sons with her; this he thought fit to acquaint him of by messenger or letter, that he might be in expectation of them, and not be surprised at once with their appearance: besides, as some observe, and not amiss, after the late attack of the Amalekites upon their rear, guards or sentinels might be placed in the outer parts of the camp for its safety, and who would not easily, without order, let strangers pass into it, and therefore previous notice was necessary to get admission.

Gill: Exo 18:7

And Moses went out to meet his father in law,.... Out of the camp, at least out of his tent: the Targum of Jonathan says, from under the cloud of glory; how far he went is not certain, nor material to know: this was an instance of his great humility and modesty, and was doing Jethro a great deal of honour; that one who was in such great dignity, at the head of such a vast body of people, and superior to him both in natural and spiritual abilities, yet condescended to go forth in person to meet him, when he might have sent a guard of his men to escort him to his camp, which would have been honour sufficient; and it is not said he went out to meet his wife and children; for Aben Ezra says it was not usual for honourable men so to do:

and did obeisance: to Jethro, bowed unto him and worshipped him in a civil way, after the manner of the eastern nations, who used to make very low bows to whom they paid civil respect:

and kissed him; not to make him a proselyte, as the above Targum, nor in token of subjection, but of affection and friendship; it being usual for relations and friends to kiss each other at meeting or parting:

and they asked each other of their welfare; or "peace" ⁿ; of their prosperity and happiness, temporal and spiritual, of their peace, inward and outward, and of the bodily health of them and their families:

and they came into the tent; the Targum of Jonathan says,"into the tabernacle of the house of doctrine,''or school room; which is not likely, since Jethro was a man well instructed in divine things, and needed not to be put to school; and if he did, it can hardly be thought that as soon as Moses met him he should set about the instruction of him; but into his tent where he dwelt; that, as Aben Ezra says, which was the known tent of Moses, though it is not expressly said his tent.

Gill: Exo 18:8

And Moses told his father in law all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh,.... After the proper civilities had passed, and Jethro had been refreshed with food and drink, as is highly probable, they entered into a conversation about what had lately passed, which Jethro had had a general report of, and which had brought him hither, and therefore it would be very entertaining to him to have the particulars of it; and Moses begins with what the Lord had done to Pharaoh, how he had inflicted his plagues upon him one after another, and at last slew his firstborn, and destroyed him and his host in the Red sea:

and to the Egyptians, for Israel's sake; the several plagues affecting them, especially the last, the slaughter of their firstborn; and who also were spoiled of their riches by the Israelites, and a numerous army of them drowned in the Red sea, and all because of the people of Israel; because they had made their lives bitter in hard bondage, had refused to let them go out of the land, and when they were departed pursued after them to fetch them back or cut them off:

and all the travail that had come upon them by the way; to the Red sea, and at Marah, and Rephidim, and how Amalek fought with them, as the Targum of Jonathan observes; what a fright they were put into, when pursued by Pharaoh and his host behind them, the rocks on each side of them, and the sea before them; their want of water in the wilderness, not being able to drink of the waters at Marah because bitter; their hunger, having no bread nor flesh in the wilderness of Sin, and their violent thirst, and no water to allay it, in the plains of Rephidim, and where also they were attacked by an army of the Amalekites:

and how the Lord delivered them; out of all this travail and trouble, and out of the hands of all their enemies, Egyptians and Amalekites.

Gill: Exo 18:9

And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel,.... In giving them the manna and the well, as the above Targum, bread to eat when hungry, and water to drink when thirsty; to which Jarchi adds, and the law, for he supposes the meeting of Jethro and Moses was after the law was given on Mount Sinai, though here recorded; but this goodness may be extended to other things, as the saving of their firstborn at the time of the Lord's passover, giving them favour in the sight of the Egyptians, of whom they borrowed or asked things of value, of gold, silver, and jewels, bringing them out of Egypt with an high hand, going before them in a pillar of cloud and fire by day and night, dividing the waters of the sea for them to pass through as on dry land, and doing for them the above things related, and giving them victory over Amalek; and it may be observed that the joy of Jethro was not merely on account of the goodness of God done to Moses, a relation of his, having married his daughter; but because of the great and good things God had done for Israel, his special and peculiar people, the worshippers of the true and living God, for whom Jethro had an affection, because they were so, and therefore rejoiced in their prosperity: whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians; whom he had wrought upon to give them leave to depart from them, and destroyed them when they pursued after them, first delivered them from their bondage, and then from their rage and wrath.

Gill: Exo 18:10

And Jethro said,.... Like a truly good man, as one that knew the Lord and feared him, and was desirous of giving him the praise and glory of all the wonderful things he had done:

blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians: and out of the hand of Pharaoh; meaning particularly Moses and Aaron, the messengers of God, as Aben Ezra observes, who went to Pharaoh in the peril of their lives, and whom he sometimes threatened with death; but the Lord delivered them both out of his hands, and out of the hands of his ministers and people, who, doubtless, must be at times enraged at them for the plagues they brought upon them; for the persons here pointed at are manifestly distinguished from the body of the people of Israel next mentioned:

who hath delivered the people from the hand of the Egyptians: the people of Israel, from the hard bondage and cruel slavery they were held under by the Egyptians; which, as it was the Lord's doing, Jethro gives him the glory of it, and blesses him for it, or ascribes to him, on account of it, blessing, honour, glory, and praise.

Gill: Exo 18:11

Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods,.... He knew the Lord before, and that he was the only true God, and greater than all that were so called; but now he had a fresh instance of it, a clear proof and demonstration of it, and so more plainly and fully knew it, and was assured of it, that he was greater than all the idols of the Gentiles, and particularly than the gods of the Egyptians; since he had saved his people Israel out of their hands, and when they could not protect and defend the Egyptians neither from plagues nor from destruction; nay, could not secure themselves, being all destroyed by the mighty Jehovah, see Exo 12:12, as also that he is greater than all that are called gods, kings, princes, and civil magistrates, than Pharaoh and all his nobles, generals, and captains, who were destroyed by him: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he was above them; the idol gods, the gods of the Egyptians, the evil demons, Satan and his principalities, who influenced them, presuming and boasting by their magicians what they could do; but in those things Jehovah in the wonders he wrought appeared to be above them; they were overcome by him, and obliged to acknowledge the finger of God; and this sense stands best connected with the preceding clause: or else in those things, in which the Egyptians dealt proudly with the Israelites, pursuing after them in the pride and vanity of their minds, and giving out that they should overtake them and divide the spoil, and satisfy their lust upon them, when God blew with his wind upon them, the sea covered them, and they sunk as lead in the mighty waters, see Exo 15:9, and to the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red sea, the Jews commonly apply this: thus the Targum of Jonathan,"wherein the Egyptians dealt wickedly in judging Israel, by the waters, judgment returned upon them that they might be judged by the waters;''and to the same sense Jarchi: they suppose here was a just retaliation, that as the Egyptians drowned the Hebrew infants in the waters of the Nile, they were in righteous judgment drowned in the Red sea; this is the very thing, or is the same way they in their pride and malice dealt with the people of Israel; God dealt with them, and showed himself to be both "against them" ^o, as it may be rendered, and above them.

Gill: Exo 18:12

And Jethro, Moses's father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God,.... The burnt offering, which was either of the flock or of the herd, was wholly consumed by fire, from whence it had its name; the peace offering for thanksgiving, which seemed to be meant by the sacrifices here, the flesh of them were to be eaten, Lev 7:15 and now a feast was kept, as the latter part of the verse shows: whether Jethro brought cattle along with him for such a purpose, and so "gave" ^p or "offered" them for a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; as the word for took may be rendered, one and the same word signifying both to give and take, see Psa 68:18, compared with Eph 4:8 or whether, with the leave of Moses and the children of Israel, he took them out of their flocks and herds, it matters not, since this is only observed to show Jethro's devotion to God, and the grateful sense he had of the divine goodness to Israel; and since he was a priest of Midian, as he is generally said to be, and a priest of the most high God, as Melchizedek was, he might offer sacrifices; for it does not appear that he delivered them to others to be offered, or that these were slain by Aaron; for, though he is after mentioned, yet not as a sacrificer, but as a guest; and perhaps this might be before he and his sons were separated to the priest's office, or, at least, before they had entered upon it; nor is this mention of a burnt offering and sacrifices any proof of Jethro's meeting Moses after the giving of the law, since, before that, sacrifices were in use, and Jethro being a grandchild of Abraham, might have learnt the use of them from him:

and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses's father in law, before God; the tents of Moses being on the east side of the tabernacle, as Aben Ezra says, in which was the mercy seat and cherubim, between which the divine Majesty was; but there is no need to suppose that the tabernacle was now built, for this tent of Moses might be placed before or near the pillar of cloud in which Jehovah was; or the sense may only be, that they ate their food in the presence of God, in the fear of the Lord, with gladness and singleness of heart, as good men do; and especially as this was an eucharistic sacrifice unto God they partook of, Aaron and the elders came out of a civil respect to Jethro, to take a meal with him, as well as to join with him in a religious action: the bread they ate was, no doubt, the manna, which Jethro, though a Midianite, yet a descendant of Abraham, and a good man, partook of, and is put for the whole repast, the flesh of the sacrifices and what else were eaten: no mention is made of Moses, nor was there any need of it, as Aben Ezra observes, it being his tent in which they were: the Targum of Jonathan adds,"Moses stood and ministered before them;''and so says Jarchi; which is not very probable, it being not agreeable to the dignity of his station and office.

Gill: Exo 18:13

And it came to pass on the morrow,.... The above Targum paraphrases it,"on the day after the day of atonement:''and so Jarchi observes the same, out of a book of theirs called Siphri; but rather this was either the day after the entertainment of Jethro with Aaron and the elders in the tent of Moses, or the day after Jethro's coming, as Aben Ezra:

that Moses sat to judge the people; though his father-in-law was come to visit him, yet he did not neglect the care of his people, and the business that lay upon his hands for their good, civil and religious; but, the very day following his coming, closely applied himself to hear and judge causes; and such a vast body of people must find him work enough; and especially if we consider their quarrelsome disposition, for if they were so to one another, as they were to Moses and Aaron, they must be very litigious; however Moses bore with them, and attended to their causes, to do justice and judgment among them, being now made a prince and a judge over them by divine authority, and whom they acknowledged as such:

and the people stood by Moses, from the morning unto the evening; not that a single cause was so long a trying, but there being so many of them in one day, that they lasted from the morning tonight; so that when one cause was dispatched and the parties dismissed, another succeeded, and so continued all the day long: Moses he sat as judge, with great majesty, gravity, and sedateness, hearkening with all attention to what was said on both sides, and the people they "stood", both plaintiff and defendant, as became them.

Gill: Exo 18:14

And when Moses's father in law saw all that he did to the people,.... Or for them ^q; for their information and instruction in the laws of God, and for the decision of cases brought before him, according to them; and what a deal of business was on his hands, and he went through for the good of the people:

he said, what is this thing that thou doest to the people? this question he put, not as being ignorant what he did, he saw what he did, and understood it full well, but this he said to lead on to some conversation upon this head:

why sittest thou thyself alone? no other judge upon the bench with him to assist him, to take it by turns, and to relieve and ease him:

and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even? not being able to get their causes heard and tried, there being so many of them; and therefore some were obliged to wait all day long, before they could have their business done, which was both fatiguing to him and them.

Gill: Exo 18:15

And Moses said unto his father in law,.... In answer to his question; and there were two things, as Aben Ezra observes, he did to the people, and for which they came to him; the one is observed in this verse, and the other in the next:

because the people come unto me to inquire of God; of his mind and will in certain cases, and of his statutes and laws, as the following verse shows; what they should observe, and according to which they should conduct themselves: they came to inquire what God would have them to do; and, in doubtful cases, what was his will and pleasure, and to desire Moses to inform them; and if the things were of such a nature that he could not easily and readily do it, then to inquire of God for them, which in later times was done by Urim and Thummim.

Gill: Exo 18:16

When they have a matter, they come unto me,.... This is the other thing he did for them, as the above writer observes; which being last mentioned, he speaks of first, as follows, meaning that when there was a matter in difference between two persons or more, and they could not agree upon it among themselves, then they brought it to him to be heard and decided:

and I judge between one and another; hear what they have to say on both sides, and then judge which is in the right and which is in the wrong, and determine what is to be done, according to the laws of God or according to the rules of justice and equity:

and I do make them know the statutes of God and his laws; this relates to the first thing, their coming to him to inquire of God, what is his mind and will, or what he would have them do; and in order to this, and in answer to their request, he instructed them in the laws of God, both civil and religious: this is made use of by some, to prove that Jethro's coming to Moses was after the law was given: but this does not necessarily follow, because Moses, by a divine impulse, might be directed immediately to make known to the people what was the will and mind of God, with respect to any particular case they inquired about; and rather this seems to furnish out an argument to the contrary, since, if the laws and statutes of God had yet been given on Mount Sinai, the people could not have been ignorant of them, and so needed not such daily information and instruction from Moses.

Gill: Exo 18:17

And Moses's father in law said unto him,.... Having observed what he did, and heard his answer to the question he put to him:

the thing that thou doest is not good; not meaning that it was not morally good, or that it was morally evil; for it was certainly a good thing to inquire of the mind and will of God for the people, and to hear and decide matters in controversy between them, and do justice to both parties; but it was not good for the health of Moses; it was not commodious and convenient for him; it was not for his bodily welfare; it was too much for him, as he explains himself in the next verse.

Gill: Exo 18:18

Thou wilt surely wear away,.... His natural strength and animal spirits, and so his flesh; he feared his constant application and attendance to business would impair his health, break his constitution, and bring him into a consumption. Moses was naturally of a strong and vigorous constitution; for, forty years after this, even to the time of his death, his natural force was not abated; or "fading thou wilt fade", or, "falling thou wilt fall" ^r; in allusion to the leaves of trees in autumn, which fade, and wither, and fall:

both thou and this people that is with thee; it was tiresome to the people, as well as fatiguing to Moses, who, because of the multitude of cases, were obliged to wait a long time, some of them from morning to night, and yet could not get their suit to come and so were obliged to attend next day, and perhaps day after day. The Targum of Jonathan is,"even thou also, Aaron and his sons, and the elders that are with them;''and so Jarchi; but these do not seem to have been assisting to him at all, as appears by what follows:

for this thing is too heavy for thee: it was too great a burden upon his shoulders, what his strength was not equal to; for though his internal abilities were exceeding great, and he had a good will to the work, to serve God and his people, yet it was more, humanly speaking, than his bodily strength would admit of, or any mortal man could go through:

thou art not able to perform it thyself alone; and this Moses was sensible of himself afterwards, and says the same thing, Deu 1:9.

Gill: Exo 18:19

Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel,.... Jethro being the elder man, and of some character and figure, being either a priest or prince of Midian, or both, might, without incurring a censure, take upon him to give advice to Moses, a younger man, and his son-in-law, though he was superior to him in office and in parts; and especially since his advice proceeded from a sincere and cordial regard for his health and welfare:

and God shall be with thee: and succeed the advice he gave, which he persuaded himself would be agreeable to the will of God, and attending to it he would prosper, and find that the method taken would be blessed of God, and issue in his own good and the good of the people; or it may be taken prayerwise, as by some, "may God be with thee" ^s; to direct thee to what thou shouldest do, either to take the advice, or reject it; and be it as it will, he wished him well, and that he might have his health, and that as his day was, his strength might be:

be thou for the people to God-ward; or on the part of God, as Aben Ezra interprets it; that part of his work he advised him to retain by all means, which lay more immediately between God and the people; to be a mediator between them; to transact affairs for them with God; to inquire his mind and will in matters difficult and doubtful; to be, as Jarchi expresses it, a messenger and interpreter between them, and an inquirer of judgments of him, or what statutes and judgments he would have observed by them: that thou mayest bring the causes unto God; concerning which, as yet, he had given no directions as a rule to go by.

Gill: Exo 18:20

And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws,.... Both with respect to things civil and religious, which he should receive from God:

and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk; the path of faith and duty, the way of truth, holiness, and righteousness:

and the work that they must do; both with respect to God, and one another, the various duties and exercises of religion, everything relating to their moral, religious, and civil conduct.

Gill: Exo 18:21

Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people,.... Or look out ^t from among them; see Act 6:3,

able men; or "men of power" ^u; meaning not so much men of strong and robust constitutions, who, as Aben Ezra says, are able to bear labour; but men that have strength of heart, as Ben Gersom expresses it, men of spirit and courage, and are not afraid to do justice, to repress vice, and countenance virtue; or, as Maimonides says ^w, have a strong heart, or courage and boldness to deliver the oppressed from the hands of the oppressor. Jarchi interprets it of rich men, of men of substance, who have no need to flatter, or play the hypocrite, and to know the faces of men:

such as fear God; who have the fear of God before their eyes, and on their hearts, in all they do, and therefore cannot do those things that others do, who are destitute of it; cannot give a cause the wrong way wilfully, or pervert judgment, and are the reverse of the character of the unjust judge, that neither feared God nor regarded man, Luk 18:2,

men of truth; true men, sincere, upright, and faithful men, that love truth and hate lies and falsehood, and will take some pains to get at the truth of a cause, to inquire where it lies, and pursue and encourage it where it is found, and discourage to the uttermost falsehood, lies, and perjury: hating covetousness; in themselves and others, filthy lucre, dishonest gain, mammon of unrighteousness, and so not to be bribed and corrupted, and execute wrong judgment for the sake of money:

and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens; meaning not courts of judicature, consisting of such a number of judges, for such a court was never known to have a thousand judges upon the bench at once; the highest court of judicature that ever was among the Jews, which was long after this time, consisted but of seventy or seventy one: but the sense is, that each of these should have such a number of persons, or rather families, under their care, who, when they applied unto them for justice, should faithfully administer it to them; See Gill on Exo 18:25.

Gill: Exo 18:22

And let them judge the people at all times,.... In their several districts, whenever a matter of difference between man and man arises, and the case is brought before them, let them judge impartially between them, and determine what is right and wrong, and execute judgment and justice truly; which would take off a great deal of business from the hands of Moses:

and it shall be that every great matter they shall bring to thee; any affair of great importance, and difficult of determination, and about which the judges may have some doubt in their minds, and they are not clear as to the decision of it; this, they the judges, not the people, were to bring to Moses:

but every small matter; which is of no great importance, or is easy of decision, where the right and the wrong clearly appear, and there is no difficulty in the determination of it:

so shall it be easier for thyself; to go through the business that would be necessarily devolved upon him, as the chief ruler and governor, supreme judge, lawgiver, leader, and commander:

and they shall bear the burden with thee; of ruling and judging the people; they taking a share of it, it would sit the lighter and easier upon him; and the whole seems to be wise and prudent counsel.

Gill: Exo 18:23

If thou shall do this thing,.... Hearken to the advice given, and put it in execution, by choosing out of the people, and placing over them, judges qualified, as directed: and God command thee so; for he did not desire him to follow his advice any further than it appeared to be according to the will of God, which he doubted not he would inquire about; and if he found it was agreeable to it, and should pursue it:

then thou shall be able to endure; to continue in his office and post, and hold on for years to come, God granting him life and health; whereas otherwise, in all human probability, he must waste and wear away apace:

and all this people shall also go to their place in peace; having had their cases heard and tried, and their differences adjusted to satisfaction; and quick dispatch being made, they would return to their tents or places of abode in much peace of mind, and sit down contented with the determination made, and pleased that the lawsuit was not protracted to any unreasonable length of time. Jarchi interprets all this people, of Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy elders that came with him, as if they by this means would be eased, and so pleased with it.

Gill: Exo 18:24

So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law,.... Considered what he said, weighed it well in his mind, and judged it good advice, and determined to follow it:

and did all that he had said; by choosing such men as he directed to, and committing the judgment of the people to them, as follows:

Gill: Exo 18:25

And Moses chose able men out of all Israel,.... He looked among them, and selected the best of them, such as most answered to the qualifications it was requisite they should have; and though only one of them is here mentioned, which is the first Jethro gave, yet no doubt they were all attended to, though not expressed:

and made them heads over the people; rulers, governors, judges, and officers; this is a general word, comprehending their several particular offices they sustained; which seem to be chiefly distinguished by the different numbers of people, or families, under them, otherwise their work and office were much the same:

rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens; just as Jethro advised, Exo 18:21. According to the Targum of Jonathan, the rulers of thousands were six hundred, rulers of hundreds 6000, rulers of fifties 12,000, and the rulers of tens 60,000; and so Jarchi; and the like account is given in both the Talmuds ^x, where the whole is summed up, amounting to 78,600; which account Aben Ezra disapproves of, and thinks not credible: it is built upon the number of Israel at this time, when they came out of Egypt, being 600,000 men; and so if there was a ruler to every thousand men, there must be six hundred of them, and so on; but these thousands may intend not individual persons, but families, that these were appointed over, as the families of Israel and Judah are called their thousands, Mic 5:2 and this will serve greatly to reduce the number of these judges and officers.

Gill: Exo 18:26

And they judged the people at all seasons,.... Any day in the week, or any time in the day, whenever there was any occasion for them, and cases were brought before them:

the hard cases they brought unto Moses; that is, the judges brought them to Moses when such came before them which were too hard for them, it was difficult to them to determine rightly about them, then they brought them to be heard and decided by him; for the judges, and not the people, best knew when a case was hard or easy to determine:

but every small matter they judged themselves; and gave it as they saw was most agreeable to justice and equity, and did not trouble Moses with it; by which means he was eased of a great deal of business and fatigue, which was Jethro's view in giving the advice he did.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Exo 18:1

¹ sn This chapter forms the transition to the Law. There has been the deliverance, the testing passages, the provision in the wilderness, and the warfare. Any God who can do all this for his people deserves their allegiance. In chap. 18 the Lawgiver is giving advice, using laws and rulings, but then he is given advice to organize the elders to assist. Thus, when the Law is fully revealed, a system will be in place to administer it. The point of the passage is that a great leader humbly accepts advice from other godly believers to delegate responsibility. He does not try to do it all himself; God does not want one individual to do it all. The chapter has three parts: vv. 1-12 tell how Jethro heard and came and worshiped and blessed; vv. 13-23 have the advice of Jethro, and then vv. 24-27 tell how Moses implemented the plan and Jethro went home. See further E. J. Runions, “Exodus Motifs in 1 Samuel 7 and 8,” EvQ 52 (1980): 130-31; and also see for another idea T. C. Butler, “An Anti-Moses Tradition,” JSOT 12 (1979): 9-15.

² tn This clause beginning with כִּי (ki) answers the question of what Jethro had heard; it provides a second, explanatory noun clause that is the object of the verb – “he heard (1) all that God had done… (2) that he had brought….” See R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 81, §490.

³ sn This is an important report that Jethro has heard, for the claim of God that he brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt will be the foundation of the covenant stipulations (Exod 20).

NET Notes: Exo 18:3

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity (also in the following verse).

NET Notes: Exo 18:4

¹ tn The referent (Moses) and the verb have been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Now is given the etymological explanation of the name of Moses’ other son, Eliezer (אֱלִיעֶזֶר, ’eli’ezer), which means “my God is a help.” The sentiment that explains this name is אֱלֹהֵי אָבִי בְּעֶזְרִי (’elohe ’avi bÿ’ezri, “the God of my father is my help”). The preposition in the sentiment is the bet (ב) essentiae (giving the essence – see GKC 379 §119.i). Not mentioned earlier, the name has become even more appropriate now that God has delivered Moses from Pharaoh again. The word for “help” is a common word in the Bible, first introduced as a description of the woman in the Garden. It means to do for someone what he or she cannot do for himself or herself. Samuel raised the “stone of help” (Ebenezer) when Yahweh helped Israel win the battle (1 Sam 7:12).

³ sn The verb “delivered” is an important motif in this chapter (see its use in vv. 8, 9, and 10 with reference to Pharaoh).

NET Notes: Exo 18:5

¹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn This is an adverbial accusative that defines the place (see GKC 373-74 §118.g).

³ sn The mountain of God is Horeb, and so the desert here must be the Sinai desert by it. But chap. 19 suggests that they left Rephidim to go the 24 miles to Sinai. It may be that this chapter fits in chronologically after the move to Sinai, but was placed here thematically. W. C. Kaiser defends the present location of the story by responding to other reasons for the change given by Lightfoot, but does not deal with the travel locations (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:411).

NET Notes: Exo 18:6

¹ sn This verse may seem out of place, since the report has already been given that they came to the desert. It begins to provide details of the event that the previous verse summarizes. The announcement in verse 6 may have come in advance by means of a messenger or at the time of arrival, either of which would fit with the attention to formal greetings in verse 7. This would suit a meeting between two important men; the status of Moses has changed. The LXX solves the problem by taking the pronoun “I” as the particle “behold” and reads it this way: “one said to Moses, ‘Behold, your father-in-law has come….’”

NET Notes: Exo 18:7

¹ sn This is more than polite oriental custom. Jethro was Moses’ benefactor, father-in-law, and a priest. He paid much respect to him. Now he could invite Jethro into his home (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 496).

NET Notes: Exo 18:8

¹ tn A rare word, “weariness” of the hardships.

² tn Heb “found them.”

³ tn Here “how” has been supplied.

NET Notes: Exo 18:9

¹ tn The word חָדָה (khada) is rare, occurring only in Job 3:6 and Ps 21:6, although it is common in Aramaic. The LXX translated it “he shuddered.” U. Cassuto suggests that that rendering was based on the midrashic interpretation in b. Sanhedrin 94b, “he felt cuts in his body” – a wordplay on the verb (Exodus, 215-16).

NET Notes: Exo 18:10

¹ tn This is a common form of praise. The verb בָּרוּךְ (barukh) is the Qal passive participle of the verb. Here must be supplied a jussive, making this participle the predicate: “May Yahweh be blessed.” The verb essentially means “to enrich”; in praise it would mean that he would be enriched by the praises of the people.

² tn Heb “from under the hand of the Egyptians.”

NET Notes: Exo 18:11

¹ tn The end of this sentence seems not to have been finished, or it is very elliptical. In the present translation the phrase “he has destroyed them” is supplied. Others take the last prepositional phrase to be the completion and supply only a verb: “[he was] above them.” U. Cassuto (Exodus, 216) takes the word “gods” to be the subject of the verb “act proudly,” giving the sense of “precisely (כִּי, ki) in respect of these things of which the gods of Egypt boasted – He is greater than they (עֲלֵיהֶם, ‘alehem).” He suggests rendering the clause, “excelling them in the very things to which they laid claim.”

NET Notes: Exo 18:12

¹ tn The verb is “and he took” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB). It must have the sense of getting the animals for the sacrifice. The Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate have “offered.” But Cody argues because of the precise wording in the text Jethro did not offer the sacrifices but received them (A. Cody, “Exodus 18,12: Jethro Accepts a Covenant with the Israelites,” Bib 49 [1968]: 159-61).

² sn Jethro brought offerings as if he were the one who had been delivered. The “burnt offering” is singular, to honor God first. The other sacrifices were intended for the invited guests to eat (a forerunner of the peace offering). See B. Jacob, Exodus, 498.

³ tn The word לֶחֶם (lekhem) here means the sacrifice and all the foods that were offered with it. The eating before God was part of covenantal ritual, for it signified that they were in communion with the Deity, and with one another.

NET Notes: Exo 18:13

¹ tn Heb “and it was/happened on the morrow.”

² sn This is a simple summary of the function of Moses on this particular day. He did not necessarily do this every day, but it was time now to do it. The people would come to solve their difficulties or to hear instruction from Moses on decisions to be made. The tradition of “sitting in Moses’ seat” is drawn from this passage.

NET Notes: Exo 18:14

¹ tn Heb “what is this thing.”

² sn This question, “what are you doing for the people,” is qualified by the next question. Sitting alone all day and the people standing around all day showed that Moses was exhibiting too much care for the people – he could not do this.

NET Notes: Exo 18:15

¹ tn The form is לִדְרֹשׁ (lidrosh), the Qal infinitive construct giving the purpose. To inquire of God would be to seek God’s will on a matter, to obtain a legal decision on a matter, or to settle a dispute. As a judge Moses is speaking for God, but as the servant of Yahweh Moses’ words will be God’s words. The psalms would later describe judges as “gods” because they made the right decisions based on God’s Law.

NET Notes: Exo 18:16

¹ tn Or “thing,” “matter,” “issue.”

² tn The verb שָׁפַט (shafat) means “to judge”; more specifically, it means to make a decision as an arbiter or umpire. When people brought issues to him, Moses decided between them. In the section of laws in Exodus after the Ten Commandments come the decisions, the מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishppatim).

³ tn The “decrees” or “statutes” were definite rules, stereotyped and permanent; the “laws” were directives or pronouncements given when situations arose. S. R. Driver suggests this is another reason why this event might have taken place after Yahweh had given laws on the mountain (Exodus, 165).

NET Notes: Exo 18:17

¹ tn Heb “the thing.”

NET Notes: Exo 18:18

¹ tn The verb means “to fall and fade” as a leaf (Ps 1:3). In Ps 18:45 it is used figuratively of foes fading away, failing in strength and courage (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 166). Here the infinitive absolute construction heightens the meaning.

² tn Gesenius lists the specialized use of the comparative min (מ) where with an adjective the thought expressed is that the quality is too difficult for the attainment of a particular aim (GKC 430 §133.c).

³ tn Here “a burden” has been supplied.

NET Notes: Exo 18:19

¹ tn Heb “hear my voice.”

² tn The line reads “Be you to the people before God.” He is to be their representative before God. This is introducing the aspect of the work that only Moses could do, what he has been doing. He is to be before God for the people, to pray for them, to appeal on their behalf. Jethro is essentially saying, I understand that you cannot delegate this to anyone else, so continue doing it (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 219-20).

³ tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive; following the imperative it will be instruction as well. Since the imperative preceding this had the idea of “continue to be” as you are, this too has that force.

⁴ tn Heb “words”; KJV, ASV “the causes”; NRSV “cases”; NLT “questions.”

NET Notes: Exo 18:20

¹ tn The perfect tense with the vav (ו) continues the sequence of instruction for Moses. He alone was to be the mediator, to guide them in the religious and moral instruction.

² tn The verb and its following prepositional phrase form a relative clause, modifying “the way.” The imperfect tense should be given the nuance of obligatory imperfect – it is the way they must walk.

³ tn This last part is parallel to the preceding: “work” is also a direct object of the verb “make known,” and the relative clause that qualifies it also uses an obligatory imperfect.

NET Notes: Exo 18:21

¹ tn The construction uses the independent pronoun for emphasis, and then the imperfect tense “see” (חָזָה, khazah) – “and you will see from all….” Both in Hebrew and Ugaritic expressions of “seeing” are used in the sense of choosing (Gen 41:33). See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 220.

² tn The expression is אַנְשֵׁי־חַיִל (’anshe khayil, “capable men”). The attributive genitive is the word used in expressions like “mighty man of valor.” The word describes these men as respected, influential, powerful people, those looked up to by the community as leaders, and those who will have the needs of the community in mind.

³ tn The description “fearers of God” uses an objective genitive. It describes them as devout, worshipful, obedient servants of God.

⁴ tn The expression “men of truth” (אַנְשֵׁי אֱמֶת, ’anshe ’emet) indicates that these men must be seekers of truth, who know that the task of a judge is to give true judgment (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 220). The word “truth” includes the ideas of faithfulness or reliability, as well as factuality itself. It could be understood to mean “truthful men,” men whose word is reliable and true.

⁵ tn Heb “haters of bribes.” Here is another objective genitive, one that refers to unjust gain. To hate unjust gain is to reject and refuse it. Their decisions will not be swayed by greed.

⁶ tn Heb “over them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ sn It is not clear how this structure would work in a judicial setting. The language of “captains of thousands,” etc., is used more for military ranks. There must have been more detailed instruction involved here, for each Israelite would have come under four leaders with this arrangement, and perhaps difficult cases would be sent to the next level. But since the task of these men would also involve instruction and guidance, the breakdown would be very useful. Deut 1:9, 13 suggest that the choice of these people was not simply Moses’ alone.

NET Notes: Exo 18:22

¹ tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive, making it equivalent to the imperfect of instruction in the preceding verse.

² tn Heb “in every time,” meaning “in all normal cases” or “under normal circumstances.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

³ tn Heb “great thing.”

⁴ tn Heb “thing.”

⁵ tn The vav here shows the result or the purpose of the instructions given.

⁶ tn The expression וְהָקֵל מֵעָלֶיךָ (vÿhaqel me’aleykha) means literally “and make it light off yourself.” The word plays against the word for “heavy” used earlier – since it was a heavy or burdensome task, Moses must lighten the load.

⁷ tn Here “the burden” has been supplied.

NET Notes: Exo 18:23

¹ tn The form is a Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive; it carries the same nuance as the preceding imperfect in the conditional clause.

² tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive now appears in the apodosis of the conditional sentence – “if you do this…then you will be able.”

³ tn Heb “to stand.” B. Jacob (Exodus, 501) suggests that there might be a humorous side to this: “you could even do this standing up.”

⁴ tn Literally “this people.”

⁵ tn The verb is the simple imperfect, “will go,” but given the sense of the passage a potential nuance seems in order.

⁶ tn Heb “his place.”

⁷ tn Heb “in peace.”

sn See further T. D. Weinshall, “The Organizational Structure Proposed by Jethro to Moses (Ex. 18:17),” Public Administration in Israel and Abroad 12 (1972): 9-13; and H. Reviv, “The Traditions Concerning the Inception of the Legal System in Israel: Significance and Dating,” ZAW 94 (1982): 566-75.

NET Notes: Exo 18:24

¹ tn The idiom “listen to the voice of” means “obey, comply with, heed.”

NET Notes: Exo 18:26

¹ tn This verb and the verb in the next clause are imperfect tenses. In the past tense narrative of the verse they must be customary, describing continuous action in past time.

Geneva Bible: Exo 18:2

Then Jethro, Moses' father in law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had ^{( a )} sent her back,

^{( a )} It may seem that he sent her back for a time to her father for her impatience, lest she should be a hinderance to his calling, which was so dangerous, (Exo 4:25).

Geneva Bible: Exo 18:5

And Jethro, Moses' father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the ^{( b )} mount of God:

^{( b )} Horeb is called the mount of God, because God did many miracles there. So Peter calls the mount where Christ was transfigured, the holy mount: for by Christ's presence it was holy for a time, (2Pe 1:18).

Geneva Bible: Exo 18:6

And he ^{( c )} said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.

^{( c )} That is, he sent messengers to say to him.

Geneva Bible: Exo 18:10

And Jethro said, ^{( d )} Blessed [be] the LORD, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

^{( d )} By this it is evident that he worshipped the true God, and therefore Moses did not refuse to marry his daughter.

Geneva Bible: Exo 18:11

Now I know that the LORD [is] greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly ^{( e )} [he was] above them.

^{( e )} For they that drowned the children of the Israelites, perished themselves by water.

Geneva Bible: Exo 18:12

And Jethro, Moses' father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father in law ^{( f )} before God.

^{( f )} They ate in the place, where the sacrifice was offered: for part was burnt, and the rest eaten.

Geneva Bible: Exo 18:15

And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of ^{( g )} God:

^{( g )} That is, to know God's will, and to have justice executed.

Geneva Bible: Exo 18:19

Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to ^{( h )} God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God:

^{( h )} You judge in difficult cases, which cannot be decided without consulting with God.

Geneva Bible: Exo 18:21

Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people ^{( i )} able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place [such] over them, [to be] rulers of thousands, [and] rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:

^{( i )} What manner of men ought to be chosen to bear office.

Geneva Bible: Exo 18:24

So Moses ^{( k )} hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.

^{( k )} Godly counsel should always be obeyed, even if it comes from our inferiors, for to such God often gives wisdom to humble those that are exalted, and to declare that one member has need of another.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Exo 18:1-27

1 Jethro brings his wife and two sons to Moses.

7 Moses entertains him, and relates the goodness of the Lord.

9 Jethro rejoices, blesses God, and offers sacrifice.

13 He gives good counsel, which is accepted.

27 Jethro departs.

Maclaren: Exo 18:3-4

Exodus 18:3-4

In old times parents often used to give expression to their hopes or their emotions in the names of their children. Very clearly that was the case in Moses' naming of his two sons, who seem to have been the whole of his family. The significance of each name is appended to it in the text. The explanation of the first is, For he said, I have been an alien in a strange land'; and that of the second, For the God of my fathers, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.' These two names give us a pathetic glimpse of the feelings with which Moses began his exile, and of the better thoughts into which these gradually cleared. The first child's name expresses his father's discontent, and suggests the bitter contrast between Sinai and Egypt; the court and the sheepfold; the gloomy, verdureless, gaunt peaks of Sinai, blazing in the fierce sunshine, and the cool, luscious vegetation of Goshen, the land for cattle. The exile felt himself all out of joint with his surroundings, and so he called the little child that came to him Gershom,' which, according to one explanation, means banishment,' and, according to another (a kind of punning etymology), means a stranger here'; in the other case expressing the same sense of homelessness and want of harmony with his surroundings. But as the years went on, Moses began to acclimatize himself, and to become more reconciled to his position and to see things more as they really were. So, when the second child is born, all his murmuring has been hushed, and he looks beyond circumstances, and lays his hand upon God. And the name of the second was Eliezer, for, he said, the God of my fathers was my help.'

Now, there are the two main streams of thought that filled these forty years; and it was worth while to put Moses into the desert for all that time, and to break off the purposes and hopes of his life sharp and short, and to condemn him to comparative idleness, or work that was all unfitted to bring out his special powers, for that huge scantling out of his life, one-third of the whole of it, in order that there might be burnt into him, not either of these two thoughts separately, but the two of them in their blessed conjunction; I am a stranger here'; God is my Help.' And so these are the thoughts which, in like juxtaposition, ought to be ours; and in higher fashion with regard to the former of them than was experienced by Moses. Let me say a word or two about each of these two things. Let us think of the strangers, and of the divine helper that is with the strangers.

I. A Stranger Here.'

Now, that is true, in the deepest sense, about all men; for the one thing that makes the difference between the man and the beast is that the beast is perfectly at home in his surroundings, and gets all that he needs out of them, and finds in them a field for all that he can do, and is fully developed to the very highest point of his capacity by what people nowadays call the environment' in which he is put. But the very opposite is the case in regard to us men. Foxes have holes,' and they are quite comfortable there; and the birds of the air have roosting-places,' and tuck their heads under their wings and go to sleep without a care and without a consciousness. But the Son of man,' the ideal Humanity as well as the realized ideal in the person of Jesus Christ, hath not where to lay His head.' No; because He is so much better than they.' Their immunity from care is not a prerogative --it is an inferiority. We are plunged into the midst of a scene of things which obviously does not match our capacities. There is a great deal more in every man than can ever find a field of expression, of work, or of satisfaction in anything beneath the stars. And no man that understands, even superficially, his own character, his own requirements, can fail to feel in his sane and quiet moments, when the rush of temptation and the illusions of this fleeting life have lost their grip upon him: This is not the place that can bring out all that is in me, or that can yield me all that I desire.' Our capacities transcend the present, and the experiences of the present are all unintelligible, unless the true end of every human life is not here at all, but in another region, for which these experiences are fitting us.

But, then, the temptations of life, the strong appeals of flesh and sense, the duties which in their proper place are lofty and elevating and refining, and put out of their place, are contemptible and degrading, all come in to make it hard for any of us to keep clearly before us what our consciousness tells us when it is strongly appealed to, that we are strangers and sojourners here and that this is not our rest, because it is polluted.' Therefore it comes to be the great glory and blessedness of the Christian Revelation that it obviously shifts the center for us, and makes that future, and not this present, the aim for which, and in the pursuit of which, we are to live. So, Christian people, in a far higher sense than Moses, who only felt himself a stranger there,' because he did not like Midian as well as Egypt, have to say, We are strangers here'; and the very aim, in one aspect, of our Christian discipline of ourselves is that we shall keep vivid, in the face of all the temptations to forget it, this consciousness of being away from our true home.

One means of doing that is to think rather oftener than the most of us do, about our true home. You have heard, I dare say, of half-reclaimed gypsies, who for a while have been coaxed out of the free life of the woods and the moors, and have gone into settled homes. After a while there has come over them a rush of feeling, a remembrance of how blessed it used to be out in the open and away from the squalor and filth where men sit and hear each other groan,' and they have flung off as if they were fetters' the trappings of civilization,' and gone back to liberty. That is what we ought to do--not going back from the higher to the lower, but smitten with what the Germans call the heimweh, the home-sickness, that makes us feel that we must get clearer sight of that land to which we truly belong.

Do you think about it, do you feel that where Jesus Christ is, is your home? I have no doubt that most of you have, or have had, dear ones here on earth about whom you could say that,' Where my husband, my wife is; where my beloved is, or my children are, that is my home, wherever my abode may be.' Are you, Christian people, saying the same thing about heaven and Jesus Christ? Do you feel that you are strangers here, not only because you, reflecting upon your character and capacities and on human life, see that all these require another life for their explanation and development, but because your hearts are knit to Him, and where your treasure is there your heart is also'; and where your heart is there you are? We go home when we come into communion with Jesus Christ. Do you ever, in the course of the rush of your daily work, think about the calm city beyond the sea, and about its King, and that you belong to it? Our citizenship is in heaven,' and here we are strangers.

II. Now Let Me Say A Word About The Other Child's Name.

God is Helper.' We do not know what interval of time elapsed between the birth of these two children. There are some indications that the second of them was in years very much the junior. Perhaps the transition from the mood represented in the one name to that represented in the other, was a long and slow process. But be that as it may, note the connection between these two names. You can never say We are strangers here' without feeling a little prick of pain, unless you say too God is my Helper.' There is a beautiful variation of the former word which will occur to many of you, I have no doubt, in one of the old psalms: I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as were all my fathers.' There is the secret that takes away all the mourning, all the possible discomfort and pain, out of the thought: Here we have no continuing city,' and makes it all blessed. It does not matter whether we are in a foreign land or no, if we have that Companion with us. His presence will make blessedness in Midian, or in Thebes. It does not matter whether it is Goshen or the wilderness, if the Lord is by our side. So sweetness is breathed into the thought, and bitterness is sucked out of it, when the name of the second child is braided into the name of the first; and we can contemplate quietly all else of tragic and limiting and sad that is involved in the thought that we are sojourners and pilgrims, when we say Yes? we are; but the Lord is my Helper.'

Then, on the other hand, we shall never say and feel the Lord is my Helper,' as we ought to do, until we have got deep in our hearts, and settled in our consciousness, the other conviction that we are strangers here. It is only when we realize that there is no other permanence for us that we put out our hands and grasp at the Eternal, in order not to be swept away upon the dark waves of the rushing stream of Time. It is only when all other props are stricken from us that we rest our whole weight upon that one strong central pillar, which can never be moved. Learn that God helps, for that makes it possible to say I am a stranger,' and not to weep. Learn that you are strangers, for that stimulates to take God for om help. Just as when the floods are out, men are driven to the highest ground to save their lives; so when the billows of the waters of time are seen to be rolling over all creature things, we take our flight to the Rock of Ages. Put the two together, and they fit one another and strengthen us.

This second conviction was the illuminating light upon a perplexed and problematic past. Moses, when he fled from Egypt, thought that his life's work was rent in twain. He had believed that his brethren would have seen that it was God's purpose to use him as the deliverer. For the sake of being such, he had surrendered the court and its delights. But on his young ambition and innocent enthusiasm there came this douche of cold water, which lasted for forty years, and sent him away into the wilderness, to be a shepherd under an Arab sheikh, with nothing to look forward to. At first he said, This is not what I was meant for; I am out of my element here.' But before the forty years were over he said, The God of my father was my help, and He delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.' What had looked a disaster turned out to be a deliverance, a manifestation of divine help, and not a hindrance. He had got far enough away from that past to look at it sanely, that is to say gratefully. So we, when we get far enough away from our sorrows, can look back at them, sometimes even here on earth, and say, The mercy of the Lord compassed me about.' Here is the key that unlocks all the perplexities of providence, The Lord was my Helper.'

And that conviction will steady and uphold a man in a present, however dark. It was no small exercise of his faith and patience that the great lawgiver should for so many years have such unworthy work to do as he had in Midian. But even then he gathered into his heart this confidence, and brought summer about him into the mid-winter of his life, and light into the midst of darkness; for he said'--even then, when there was no work for him to do that seemed much to need a divine help--the Lord is my Helper.'

And so, however dark may be our present moment, and however obscure or repulsive our own tasks, Let us fall back upon that old word,' Thou hast been my Help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.'

When Moses named his boy, his gratitude was allied with faith in favours to come; and when he said was,' he meant also will be.' And he was right. He dreamt very little of what was coming, but this confidence that was expressed in his second child's name was warranted by that great future that lay before him, though he did not know it. When the pinch came his confidence faltered. It was easy to say The Lord is my Helper,' when there was nothing very special for which God's help was needed, and nothing harder to do than to look after a few sheep in the wilderness. But when God said to him, Go and stand before Pharaoh,' Moses for the moment forgot all about God's being his helper, and was full of all manner of cowardly excuses, which, like the excuses of a great many more of us for not doing our plain duty, took the shape of a very engaging modesty and diffidence as to his capacities. But God said to him, Surely I will be with thee.' He gave him back Eliezer in a little different form.' You used to say that I was your helper. What has become of your faith now? Has it all evaporated when the trial comes? Surely I will be with thee.' If we will set ourselves to our tasks, not doubting God's help, we shall have occasion in the event to be sure that God did help us.

So, brethren, let us cherish these two thoughts, and never keep them apart, and God will be, as our good old hymn has it-

Our help while troubles last,And our eternal home.'

Maclaren: Exo 18:21

Exodus 18:21

(Preached on occasion of Mr. Gladstone's death.)

You will have anticipated my purpose in selecting this text. I should be doing violence to your feelings and mine if I made no reference to the event which has united the Empire and the world in one sentiment. The great tree has fallen, and the crash has for the moment silenced all the sounds of the forest. Wars abroad and controversies at home are hushed. All men, of all schools of opinion, creeds, and parties, see now, in the calm face of the dead, the likeness to the great of old'; and it says something, with all our faults, for the soundness of the heart of English opinion, that all sorts and conditions of men have brought their sad wreaths to lay them on that coffin.

But, whilst much has been said, far more eloquently and authoritatively than I can say it, about the many aspects of that many-sided life, surely it becomes us, as Christian people, to look at it from the distinctively Christian point of view, and to gather some of the lessons which, so regarded, it teaches us.

My text is part of the sagacious advice which Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, gave him about the sort of men that he should pick out to be his lieutenants in civic government. Its old-fashioned, simple phraseology may hide from some of us the elevation and comprehensiveness of the ideal that it sets forth. But it is a grand ideal; and amongst the great names of Englishmen who have guided the destinies of this land, none have approached more nearly to it than he whose death has taken away the most striking personality from our public life.

So let me ask you to look with me, first, at the ideal of a politician that is set forth here.

The free life of the desert, far away from the oppressions of surrounding military despotisms, that remarkable and antique constitution of the clan, with all its beautiful loyalty, had given this Arab sheikh a far loftier conception of what a ruler of men was than he could have found exemplified at Pharaoh's court; or than, alas! has been common in many so-called Christian countries. The field upon which he intended that these great qualities should be exercised was a very limited one, to manage the little affairs of a handful of fugitives in the desert. But the scale on which we work has nothing to do with the principles by which we work, and the laws of perspective and coloring are the same, whether you paint the minutest miniature or a gigantic fresco. So what was needed for managing the little concerns of Moses' wanderers in the wilderness is the ideal of what is needed for the men who direct the public affairs of world-wide empires.

Let me run over the details. They must be able men,' or, as the original has it,' men of strength.' There is the intellectual basis, and especially the basis of firm, brave, strongly-set will which will grasp convictions, and, whatever comes, will follow them to their conclusions. The statesman is not one that puts his ear down to the ground to hear the tramp of some advancing host, and then makes up his mind to follow in their paths; he is not sensitive to the varying winds of public opinion, nor does he trim his sails to suit them, but he comes to his convictions by first-hand approach to, and meditation on, the great principles that are to guide, and then holds to them with a strength that nothing can weaken, and a courage that nothing can daunt. Men of strength' is what democracies like ours do most need in their leaders; a strong man, in a blatant land,' who knows his own mind, and is faithful to it for ever. That is a great demand.

Such as fear God'--there is the secret of strength, not merely in reference to the intellectual powers which are not dependent for their origin, though they may be for the health and vigor of their work, upon any religious sentiment, but in regard to all true power. He that would govern others must first be lord of himself, and he only is lord of himself who is consciously and habitually the servant of God. So that whatever natural endowment we start with, it must be heightened, purified, deepened, enlarged, by the presence in our lives of a deep and vital religious conviction. That is true about all men, leaders and led, large and small. That is the bottom-heat in the greenhouse, as it were, that will make riper and sweeter all the fruits which are the natural result of natural capacities. That is the amulet and the charm which will keep a man from the temptations incident to his position and the weaknesses incident to his character. The fear of God underlies the noblest lives. That is not to-day's theory. We are familiar with the fact, and familiar with the doctrine formulated out of it, that there may be men of strong and noble lives and great leaders in many a department of human activity without any reference to the Unseen. Yes, there may be, but they are all fragments, and the complete man comes only when the fear of the Lord is guide, leader, impulse, polestar, regulator, corrector, and inspirer of all that he is and all that he does.

Men of truth '--that, of course, glances at the crooked ways which belong not only to Eastern statesmanship, but it does more than that. He that is to lead men must himself be led by an eager haste to follow after, and to apprehend, the very truth of things. And there must be in him clear transparent willingness to render his utmost allegiance, at any sacrifice, to the dawning convictions that may grow upon him. It is only fools that do not change. Freshness of enthusiasm, and fidelity to new convictions opening upon a man, to the end of his life, are not the least important of the requirements in him who would persuade and guide individuals or a nation.

Hating covetousness'; or, as it might be rendered, unjust gain.' That reference to the oiling of the palms' of Eastern judges may be taken in a loftier signification. If a man is to stand forth as the leader of a people, he must be clear, as old Samuel said that he was, from all suspicion of having been following out his career for any form of personal advantage. Clean hands,' and that not only from the vulgar filth of wealth, but from the more subtle advantages which may accrue from a lofty position, are demanded of the leader of men.

Such is the ideal. The requirements are stern and high, and they exclude the vermin that infest politics,' as they are called, and cause them to stink in many nostrils. The self-seeking schemer, the one-eyed partisan, the cynic who disbelieves in ideals of any sort, the charlatan who assumes virtues that he does not possess, and mouths noble sentiments that go no deeper than his teeth, are all shut out by them. The doctrine that a man may do in his public capacity things which would be disgraceful in private life, and yet retain his personal honor untarnished, is blown to atoms by this ideal. It is much to be regretted, and in some senses to be censured, that so many of our wisest, best, and most influential men stand apart from public life. Much of that is due to personal bias, much more of it is due to the pressure of more congenial duties, and not a little of it is due to the disregard of Jethro's ideal, and to the degradation of public life which has ensued thereby. But there have been great men in our history whose lives have helped to lift up the ideal of a statesman, who have made such a sketch as Jethro outlined, though they may not have used his words, their polestar; and amongst the highest of these has been the man whose loss we to-day lament.

Let me try to vindicate that expression of opinion in a word or two. I cannot hope to vie in literary grace, or in completeness, with the eulogies that have been abundantly poured out; and I should not have thought it right to divert this hour of worship from its ordinary themes, if I had had no more to say than has been far better said a thousand times in these last days. But I cannot help noticing that, though there has been a consensus of admiration of, and a practically unanimous pointing to, character as after all the secret of the spell which Mr. Gladstone has exercised for two generations, there has not been, as it seems to me, equal and due prominence given to what was, and what he himself would have said was, the real root of his character and the productive cause of his achievements.

And so I venture now to say a word or two about the religion of the man that to his own consciousness underlay all the rest of him. It is not for me to speak, and there is no need to speak, about the marvelous natural endowments and the equally marvelous, many-sided equipment of attainment which enriched the rich, natural soil. Intermeddling as he did with all knowledge, he must necessarily have been but an amateur in many of the subjects into which he rushed with such generous eagerness. But none the less is the example of all but omnivorous acquisitiveness of everything that was to be known, a protest, very needful in these days, against the possible evils of an excessive specializing which the very progress of knowledge in all departments seems to make inevitable. I do not need to speak, either, of the flow, and sometimes the torrent, of eloquence ever at his command, nor of the lithe and sinewy force of his extraordinarily nimble, as well as massive, mind; nor need I say more than one word about the remarkable combination of qualities so generally held and seen to be incompatible, which put into one personality a genius for dry arithmetical figures and a genius for enthusiasm and sympathy with all the oppressed. All these things have been said far better than I can say them, and I do not repeat them.

But I desire to hammer this one conviction into your hearts and my own, that the inmost secret of that noble life, of all that wealth of capacity, all that load of learning, which he bore lightly like a flower, was the fact that the man was, to the very depths of his nature, a devout Christian. He would have been as capable, as eloquent, and all the rest of it, if he had been an unbeliever. But he would never have been nor done what he was and did, and he would never have left the dint of an impressive and lofty personality upon a whole nation and a world, if beneath the intellect there had not been character, and beneath character Christianity.

He was far removed, in ecclesiastical connections, from us Nonconformists, and he held opinions in regard to some very important ecclesiastical questions which cut straight across some of our deepest convictions. We never had to look for much favor from his hands, because his intellectual atmosphere removed him far from sympathy with many of the truths which are dearest to the members of the Free Evangelical Churches. But none the less we recognize in him a brother in Jesus Christ, and rejoice that there, on the high places of a careless and skeptical generation, there stood a Christian man.

In this connection I cannot but, though I have no right to do so, express how profoundly thankful I, for one, was to the present Prime Minister of England that in his brief eulogium on, I was going to say, his great rival, he ended all by the emphatic declaration that Mr. Gladstone was, first and foremost, a great Christian man. Yes; and there was the secret, as I have already said, not of his merely political eminence, but of the universal reverence which a nation expresses to-day. All detraction is silenced, and all calumnies have dropped away, as filth from the white wings of a swan as it soars, and with one voice the Empire and the world confess that he was a great and a good man.

I need not dwell in detail on the thoughts of how, by reason of this deep underlying fear of God, the other qualifications which are sketched in our ideal found their realization in him; how those who, all through his career, smiled most at the successive enthusiasms which monopolized his mind, and sometimes at the contrasts between these, are now ready to admit that, whether the enthusiasms were right or wrong, there is something noble in the spectacle of a man ever keeping his mind, even when its windows were beginning to be dimmed by the frosts of age, open to the beams of new truth. And the greatest, as some people think, of his political blunders, as we are beginning, all of us, to recognize, now that party strife is hushed, was the direct consequence of that ever fresh and youthful enthusiasm for new thoughts and new lines of action. Innovators aged eighty are not too numerous.

Nor need I say more than one word about the other part of the ideal, hating covetousness.' The giver of peerages by the bushel died a commoner. The man that had everything at his command made no money, nor anything else, out of his long years of office, except the satisfaction of having been permitted to render what he believed to be the highest of service to the nation that he loved so well. Like our whilom neighbor, the other great commoner, John Bright, he lived among his own people; and like Samuel, of whom I have already spoken, he could stretch out his old hands and say, They are clean.' One scarcely feels as if, to such a life, a State funeral in Westminster Abbey was congruous. One had rather have seen him laid among the humble villagers who were his friends and companions, and in the quiet churchyard which his steps had so often traversed. But at all events the ideal was realized, and we all know what it was.

Might I say one word more? As this great figure passes out of men's sight to nobler work, be sure, on widened horizons corresponding to his tutored and exercised powers, does he leave no lessons behind for us? He leaves one very plain, homely one, and that is, Work while it is called to-day.' No opulence of endowment tempted this man to indolence, and no poverty of endowment will excuse us for sloth. Work is the law of our lives; and the more highly we are gifted, the more are we bound to serve.

He leaves us another lesson. Follow convictions as they open before you, and never think that you have done growing, or have reached your final stage.

He leaves another lesson. Do not suppose that the Gospel of Jesus Christ cannot satisfy the keenest intellect, nor dominate the strongest will. It has come to be a mark of narrowness and fossilhood to be a devout believer in Christ and His Cross. Some of you young men make an easy reputation for cleverness and advanced thought by the short and simple process of disbelieving what your mother taught you. Here is a man, probably as great as you are, with as keen an intellect, and he clung to the Cross of Christ, and had for his favorite hymn--

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.'

He leaves another lesson. If you desire to make your characters all that it is in them to be made, you must, like him, go to Jesus Christ, and get your teaching and your inspiration from that great Lord. We cannot all be great men. Never mind. It is character that tells; we can all be good men, and we can all be Christian men. And whether we build cottages or palaces, if we build on one foundation, and only if we do, they will stand.

Moses leaves another lesson, as he glides into the past. This man, having served his generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was gathered to his fathers, and saw corruption'; but He whom God hath raised up saw no corruption.' The lamps are quenched, the sun shines. Moses dies, The prophets, do they live for ever?' but when Moses and Elias faded from the Mount of Transfiguration' the apostles saw no man any more, save Jesus only, and the voice said,' This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him-'

MHCC: Exo 18:1-6

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, 1Ti 3:5.

MHCC: Exo 18:7-12

Conversation concerning God's wondrous works is good, and edifies. Jethro not only rejoiced in the honour done to his son-in-law, but in all the goodness done to Israel. Standers-by were more affected with the favours God had showed to Israel, than many were who received them. Jethro gave the glory to Israel's God. Whatever we have the joy of, God must have the praise. They joined in a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Mutual friendship is sanctified by joint worship. It is very good for relations and friends to join in the spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise, as those that meet in Christ. This was a temperate feast; they did eat bread, manna. Jethro must see and taste that bread from heaven, and though a gentile, is welcome: the gentiles are welcomed to Christ the Bread of life.

MHCC: Exo 18:13-27

Here is the great zeal and the toil of Moses as a magistrate. Having been employed to redeem Israel out of the house of bondage, he is a further type of Christ, that he is employed as a lawgiver and a judge among them. If the people were as quarrelsome one with another as they were with God, no doubt Moses had many causes brought before him. This business Moses was called to; it appears that he did it with great care and kindness. The meanest Israelite was welcome to bring his cause before him. Moses kept to his business from morning to night. Jethro thought it was too much for him to undertake alone; also it would make the administration of justice tiresome to the people. There may be over-doing even in well-doing. Wisdom is profitable to direct, that we may neither content ourselves with less than our duty, nor task ourselves beyond our strength. Jethro advised Moses to a better plan. Great men should not only study to be useful themselves, but contrive to make others useful. Care must be taken in the choice of the persons admitted into such a trust. They should be men of good sense, that understood business, and that would not be daunted by frowns or clamours, but abhorred the thought of a bribe. Men of piety and religion; such as fear God, who dare not to do a base thing, though they could do it secretly and securely. The fear of God will best fortify a man against temptations to injustice. Moses did not despise this advice. Those are not wise, who think themselves too wise to be counselled.

Matthew Henry: Exo 18:1-6

This incident may very well be allowed to have happened as it is placed here, before the giving of the law, and not, as some place it, in connection with what is recorded, Num 10:11, Num 10:29, etc. Sacrifices were offered before; in these mentioned here (Exo 18:12) it is observable that Jethro is said to take them, not Aaron. And as to Jethro's advising Moses to constitute judges under him, though it is intimate (Exo 18:13) that the occasion of his giving that advice was on the morrow, yet it does not follow but that Moses's settlement of that affair might be some time after, when the law was given, as it is placed, Deu 1:9. It is plain that Jethro himself would not have him make this alteration in the government till he had received instructions from God about it (Exo 18:23), which he did not till some time after. Jethro comes,

I. To congratulate the happiness of Israel, and particularly the honour of Moses his son-in-law; and now Jethro thinks himself well paid for all the kindness he had shown to Moses in his distress, and his daughter better matched than he could have expected. Jethro could not but hear what all the country rang of, the glorious appearances of God for his people Israel (Exo 18:1); and he comes to enquire, and inform himself more fully thereof (see Psa 111:2), and to rejoice with them as one that had a true respect both for them and for their God. Though he, as a Midianite, was not to share with them in the promised land, yet he shared with them in the joy of their deliverance. We may thus make the comforts of others our own, by taking pleasure, as God does, in the prosperity of the righteous.

II. To bring Moses's wife and children to him. It seems, he had sent them back, probably from the inn where his wife's aversion to the circumcision of her son had like to have cost him his life (Exo 4:25); fearing lest they should prove a further hindrance, he sent them home to his father-in-law. He foresaw what discouragements he was likely to meet with in the court of Pharaoh, and therefore would not take any with him in his own family. He was of that tribe that said to his father, I have not known him, when service was to be done for God, Deu 33:9. Thus Christ's disciples, when they were to go upon an expedition not much unlike that of Moses, were to forsake wife and children, Mat 19:29. But though there might be reason for the separation that was between Moses and his wife for a time, yet they must come together again, as soon as ever they could with any convenience. It is the law of the relation. You husbands, dwell with your wives, 1Pe 3:7. Jethro, we may suppose, was glad of his daughter's company, and fond of her children, yet he would not keep her from her husband, nor them from their father, Exo 18:5, Exo 18:6. Moses must have his family with him, that while he ruled the church of God he might set a good example of prudence in family-government, 1Ti 3:5. Moses had now a great deal both of honour and care put upon him, and it was fit that his wife should be with him to share with him in both. Notice is taken of the significant names of his two sons. 1. The eldest was called Gershom (Exo 18:3), a stranger, Moses designing thereby, not only a memorial of his own condition, but a memorandum to his son of his condition also: for we are all strangers upon earth, as all our fathers were. Moses had a great uncle almost of the same name, Gershon, a stranger; for though he was born in Canaan (Gen 46:11), yet even there the patriarchs confessed themselves strangers. 2. The other he called Eliezer (Exo 18:4), My God a help, as we translate it; it looks back to his deliverance from Pharaoh, when he made his escape, after the slaying of the Egyptian; but, if this was (as some think) the son that was circumcised at the inn as he was going, I would rather translate it so as to look forward, which the original will bear, The Lord is my help, and will deliver me from the sword of Pharaoh, which he had reason to expect would be drawn against him when he was going to fetch Israel out of bondage. Note, When we are undertaking any difficult service for God and our generation, it is good for us to encourage ourselves in God as our help: he that has delivered does and will deliver.

Matthew Henry: Exo 18:7-12

Observe here, I. The kind greeting that took place between Moses and his father-in-law, Exo 18:7. Though Moses was a prophet of the Lord, a great prophet, and king in Jeshurun, yet he showed a very humble respect to his father-in-law. However God in his providence is pleased to advance us, we must make conscience of giving honour to whom honour is due, and never look with disdain upon our poor relations. Those that stand high in the favour of God are not thereby discharged from the duty they owe to men, nor will that justify them in a stately haughty carriage. Moses went out to meet Jethro, did homage to him, and kissed him. Religion does not destroy good manners. They asked each other of their welfare. Even the kind How-do-you-do's that pass between them are taken notice of, as the expressions and improvements of mutual love and friendship.

II. The narrative that Moses gave his father-in-law of the great things God had done for Israel, Exo 18:8. This was one thing Jethro came for, to know more fully and particularly what he had heard the general report of. Note, Conversation concerning God's wondrous works is profitable conversation; it is good, and to the use of edifying, Psa 105:2. Compare Psa 145:11, Psa 145:12. Asking and telling news, and discoursing of it, are not only an allowable entertainment of conversation, but are capable of being tuned to a very good account, by taking notice of God's providence, and the operations and tendencies of that providence, in all occurrences.

III. The impressions this narrative made upon Jethro. 1. He congratulated God's Israel: Jethro rejoiced, Exo 18:9. He not only rejoiced in the honour done to his son-in-law, but in all the goodness done to Israel, Exo 18:9. Note, Public blessings are the joy of public spirits. While the Israelites were themselves murmuring, notwithstanding all God's goodness to them, here was a Midianite rejoicing. This was not the only time that the faith of the Gentiles shamed the unbelief of the Jews; see Mat 8:10. Standers-by were more affected with the favours God had shown to Israel than those were that received them. 2. He gave the glory to Israel's God (Exo 18:10): " Blessed be Jehovah "(for by that name he is now known), " who hath delivered you, Moses and Aaron, out of the hand of Pharaoh, so that though he designed your death he could not effect it, and by your ministry has delivered the people. "Note, Whatever we have the joy of God must have the praise of. 3. His faith was hereby confirmed, and he took this occasion to make a solemn profession of it: Now know I that Jehovah is greater than all gods, Exo 18:11. Observe, (1.) The matter of his faith: that the God of Israel is greater than all pretenders, all false and counterfeit-deities, that usurp divine honours; he silences them, subdues them, and is too hard for them all, and therefore is himself the only living and true God. He is also higher than all princes and potentates (who are called gods), and has both an incontestable authority over them and an irresistible power to control and over-rule them; he manages them all as he pleases, and gets honour upon them, how great soever they are. (2.) The confirmation and improvement of his faith: Now know I; he knew it before, but now he knew it better; his faith great up to a full assurance, upon this fresh evidence. Those obstinately shut their eyes against the clearest light who do not know that the Lord is greater than all gods. (3.) The ground and reason upon which he built it: For wherein they dealt proudly, the magicians, and the idols which the Egyptians worshipped, or Pharaoh and his grandees (they both opposed God and set up in competition with him), he was above them. The magicians were baffled, the idols shaken, Pharaoh humbled, his powers broken, and, in spite of all their confederacies, God's Israel was rescued out of their hands. Note, Sooner or later, God will show himself above those that by their proud dealings contest with him. He that exalts himself against God shall be abased.

IV. The expressions of their joy and thankfulness. They had communion with each other both in a feast and in a sacrifice, Exo 18:12. Jethro, being hearty in Israel's interests, was cheerfully admitted though a Midianite, into fellowship with Moses and the elders of Israel, forasmuch as he also was a son of Abraham, though of a younger house. 1. They joined in a sacrifice of thanksgiving: Jethro took burnt offerings for God, and probably offered them himself, for he was a priest in Midian, and a worshipper of the true God, and the priesthood was not yet settled in Israel. Note, Mutual friendship is sanctified by joint-worship. It is a very good thing for relations and friends, when they come together, to join in the spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise, as those that meet in Christ the centre of unity. 2. They joined in a feast of rejoicing, a feast upon the sacrifice. Moses, upon this occasion, invited his relations and friends to an entertainment in his own tent, a laudable usage among friends, and which Christ himself, not only warranted, but recommended, by his acceptance of such invitations. This was a temperate feast: They did eat bread; this bread, we may suppose, was manna. Jethro must see and taste that bread from heaven, and, though a Gentile, is as welcome to it as any Israelite; the Gentiles still are so to Christ the bread of life. It was a feast kept after a godly sort: They did eat bread before God, soberly, thankfully, in the fear of God; and their table-talk was such as became saints. Thus we must eat and drink to the glory of God, behaving ourselves at our tables as those who believe that God's eye is upon us.

Matthew Henry: Exo 18:13-27

Here is, I. The great zeal and industry of Moses as a magistrate.

1. Having been employed to redeem Israel out of the house of bondage, herein he is a further type of Christ, that he is employed as a lawgiver and a judge among them. (1.) He was to answer enquiries, to acquaint them with the will of God in doubtful cases, and to explain the laws of God that were already given them, concerning the sabbath, the man, etc., beside the laws of nature, relating both to piety and equity, Exo 18:15. They came to enquire of God; and happy it was for them that they had such an oracle to consult: we are ready to wish, many a time, that we had some such certain way of knowing God's mind when we are at a loss what to do. Moses was faithful both to him that appointed him and to those that consulted him, and made them know the statutes of God and his laws, Exo 18:16. His business was, not to make laws, but to make known God's laws; his place was but that of a servant. (2.) He was to decide controversies, and determine matters in variance, judging between a man and his fellow, Exo 18:16. And, if the people were as quarrelsome one with another as they were with God, no doubt he had a great many causes brought before him, and the more because their trials put them to no expense, nor was the law costly to them. When a quarrel happened in Egypt, and Moses would have reconciled the contenders, they asked, Who made thee a prince and a judge? But now it was past dispute that God had made him one; and they humbly attend him whom they had then proudly rejected.

2. Such was the business Moses was called to, and it appears that he did it, (1.) With great consideration, which, some think, is intimated in his posture: he sat to judge (Exo 18:13), composed and sedate. (2.) With great condescension to the people, who stood by him, Exo 18:14. He was very easy of access; the meanest Israelite was welcome himself to bring his cause before him. (3.) With great constancy and closeness of application. [1.] Though Jethro, his father-in-law, was with him, which might have given him a good pretence for a vacation (he might have adjourned the court for that day, or at least have shortened it), yet he sat, even the next day after his coming, from morning till evening. Note, Necessary business must always take place of ceremonious attentions. It is too great a compliment to our friends to prefer the enjoyment of their company before our duty to God, which ought to be done, while yet the other is not left undone. [2.] Though Moses was advanced to great honour, yet he did not therefore take his case and throw upon others the burden of care and business; no, he thought his preferment, instead of discharging him from service, made it more obligatory upon him. Those think of themselves above what is meet who think it below them to do good. It is the honour even of angels themselves to be serviceable. [3.] Though the people had been provoking to him, and were ready to stone him (Exo 17:4), yet still he made himself the servant of all. Note, Though others fail in their duty to us, yet we must not therefore neglect ours to them. [4.] Though he was an old man, yet he kept to his business from morning to night, and made it his meat and drink to do it. God had given him great strength both of body and mind, which enabled him to go through a great deal of work with ease and pleasure; and, for the encouragement of others to spend and be spent in the service of God, it proved that after all his labours his natural force was not diminished. Those that wait on the Lord and his service shall renew their strength.

II. The great prudence and consideration of Jethro as a friend.

1. He disliked the method that Moses took, and was so free with him as to tell him so, Exo 18:14, Exo 18:17, Exo 18:18. He thought it was too much business for Moses to undertake alone, that it would be a prejudice to his health and too great a fatigue to him, and also that it would make the administration of justice tiresome to the people; and therefore he tells him plainly, It is not good. Note, There may be over-doing even in well-doing, and therefore our zeal must always be governed by discretion, that our good may not be evil spoken of. Wisdom is profitable to direct, that we may neither content ourselves with less than our duty nor over-task ourselves with that which is beyond our strength.

2. He advised him to such a model of government as would better answer the intention, which was, (1.) That he should reserve to himself all applications to God (Exo 18:19): Be thou for them to God-ward; that was an honour in which it was not fit any other should share with him, Num 12:6-8. Also whatever concerned the whole congregation in general must pass through his hand, Exo 18:20. But, (2.) That he should appoint judges in the several tribes and families, who should try causes between man and man, and determine them, which would be done with less noise, and more despatch, than in the general assembly wherein Moses himself presided. Thus they must be governed as a nation by a king as supreme, and inferior magistrates sent and commissioned by him, 1Pe 2:13, 1Pe 2:14. Thus many hands would make light work, causes would be sooner heard, and the people eased by having justice thus brought to their tent-doors. Yet, (3.) An appeal might lie, if there were just cause for it, from these inferior courts to Moses himself; at least if the judges were themselves at a loss: Every great matter they shall bring unto thee, Exo 18:22. Thus that great man would be the more serviceable by being employed only in great matters. Note, Those whose gifts and stations are most eminent may yet be greatly furthered in their work by the assistance of those that are every way their inferiors, whom therefore they should not despise. The head has need of the hands and feet, 1Co 12:21. Great men should not only study to be useful themselves, but contrive how to make others useful, according as their capacity is. Such is Jethro's advice, by which it appears that though Moses excelled him in prophecy he excelled Moses in politics; yet,

3. He adds two qualifications to his counsel: - (1.) That great care should be taken in the choice of the persons who should be admitted into this trust (Exo 18:21); they must be able men, etc. It was requisite that they should be men of the very best character, [1.] For judgment and resolution - able men, men of good sense, that understood business, and bold men, that would not be daunted by frowns or clamours. Clear heads and stout hearts make good judges. [2.] For piety and religion - such as fear God, as believe there is a God above them, whose eye is upon them, to whom they are accountable, and of whose judgment they stand in awe. Conscientious men, that dare not do a base thing, though they could do it ever so secretly and securely. The fear of God is that principle which will best fortify a man against all temptations to injustice, Neh 5:15; Gen 42:18. [3.] For integrity and honesty - men of truth, whose word one may take, and whose fidelity one may rely upon, who would not for a world tell a lie, betray a trust, or act an insidious part. [4.] For noble and generous contempt of worldly wealth - hating covetousness, not only not seeking bribes nor aiming to enrich themselves, but abhorring the thought of it; he is fit to be a magistrate, and he alone, who despiseth the gain of oppressions, and shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes, Isa 33:15. (2.) That he should attend God's direction in the case (Exo 18:23): If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so. Jethro knew that Moses had a better counsellor than he was, and to his counsel he refers him. Note, Advice must be given with a humble submission to the word and providence of God, which must always overrule.

Now Moses did not despise this advice because it came from one not acquainted, as he was, with the words of God and the visions of the Almighty; but he hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, Exo 18:24. When he came to consider the thing, he saw the reasonableness of what his father-in-law proposed and resolved to put it in practice, which he did soon afterwards, when he had received directions from God in the matter. Note, Those are not so wise as they would be thought to be who think themselves too wise to be counselled; for a wise man (one who is truly so) will hear, and will increase learning, and not slight good counsel, though given by an inferior. Moses did not leave the election of the magistrates to the people, who had already done enough to prove themselves unfit for such a trust; but he chose them, and appointed them, some for greater, others for less division, the less probably subordinate to the greater. We have reason to value government as a very great mercy, and to thank God for laws and magistrates, so that we are not like the fishes of the sea, where the greater devour the less.

III. Jethro's return to his own land, Exo 18:27. No doubt he took home with him the improvements he had made in the knowledge of God, and communicated them to his neighbours for their instruction. It is supposed that the Kenites (mentioned in 1Sa 15:6) were the posterity of Jethro (compare Jdg 1:16), and they are there taken under special protection, for the kindness their ancestor here showed to Israel. The good-will shown to God's people, even in the smallest instances, shall in no wise lose its reward, but shall be recompensed, at furthest, in the resurrection.

Keil-Delitzsch: Exo 18:1-5

The Amalekites had met Israel with hostility, as the prototype of the heathen who would strive against the people and kingdom of God. But Jethro, the Midianitish priest, appeared immediately after in the camp of Israel, not only as Moses' father-in-law, to bring back his wife and children, but also with a joyful acknowledgement of all that Jehovah had done to the Israelites in delivering them from Egypt, to offer burnt-offerings to the God of Israel, and to celebrate a sacrificial meal with Moses, Aaron, and all the elders of Israel; so that in the person of Jethro the first-fruits of the heathen, who would hereafter seek the living God, entered into religious fellowship with the people of God. As both the Amalekites and Midianites were descended from Abraham, and stood in blood-relationship to Israel, the different attitudes which they assumed towards the Israelites foreshadowed and typified the twofold attitude which the heathen world would assume towards the kingdom of God. (On Jethro , see Exo 2:18; on Moses' wife and sons, see Exo 2:21-22; and on the expression in Exo 18:2, " after he had sent her back, "Exo 4:26.) - Jethro came to Moses "into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God." The mount of God is Horeb (Exo 3:1); and the place of encampment is Rephidim, at Horeb, i.e., at the spot where the Sheikh valley opens into the plain of er Rahah (Exo 17:1). This part is designated as a wilderness; and according to Robinson (1, pp. 130, 131) the district round this valley and plain is "naked desert,"and "wild and desolate."The occasion for Jethro the priest to bring back to his son-in-law his wife and children was furnished by the intelligence which had reached him, that Jehovah had brought Israel out of Egypt (Exo 18:1), and, as we may obviously supply, had led them to Horeb. When Moses sent his wife and sons back to Jethro, he probably stipulated that they were to return to him on the arrival of the Israelites at Horeb. For when God first called Moses at Horeb, He foretold to him that Israel would be brought to this mountain on its deliverance from Egypt (Exo 3:12).

(Note: Kurtz (Hist. of O. C. iii. 46, 53) supposes that it was chiefly the report of the glorious result of the battle with Amalek which led Jethro to resolve to bring Moses' family back to him. There is no statement, however, to this effect in the biblical text, but rather the opposite, namely, that what Jethro had heard of all that God had done to Moses and Israel consisted of the fact that Jehovah had brought Israel out of Egypt. Again, there are not sufficient grounds for placing the arrival of Jethro at the camp of Israel, in the desert of Sinai and after the giving of the law, as Ranke has done. For the fact that the mount of God is mentioned as the place of encampment at the time, is an argument in favour of Rephidim, rather than against it, as we have already shown. And we can see no force in the assertion that the circumstances, in which we find the people, point rather to the longer stay at Sinai, than to the passing halt at Rephidim. For how do we know that the stay at Rephidim was such a passing one, that it would not afford time enough for Jethro's visit? It is true that, according to the ordinary assumption, only half a month intervened between the arrival of the Israelites in the desert of Sin and their arrival in the desert of Sinai; but within this space of time everything might have taken place that is said to have occurred on the march from the former to the latter place of encampment. It is not stated in the biblical text that seven days were absorbed in the desert of Sin alone, but only that the Israelites spent a Sabbath there, and had received manna a few days before, so that three or four days (say from Thursday to Saturday inclusive) would amply suffice for all that took place. If the Israelites, therefore, encamped there in the evening of the 15th, they might have moved farther on the morning of the 19th or 20th, and after a two days' journey by Dofkah and Alush have reached Rephidim on the 21st or 22nd. They could then have fought the battle with the Amalekites the following day, so that Jethro might have come to the camp on the 24th or 25th, and held the sacrificial meal with the Israelites the next day. In that case there would still be four or five days left for him to see Moses sitting in judgment a whole day long (Exo 18:13), and for the introduction of the judicial arrangements proposed by Jethro; - amply sufficient time, inasmuch as one whole day would suffice for the sight of the judicial sitting, which is said to have taken place the day after the sacrificial meal (Exo 18:13). And the election of judges on the part of the people, for which Moses gave directions in accordance with Jethro's advice, might easily have been carried out in two days. For, on the one hand, it is most probable that after Jethro had watched this severe and exhausting occupation of Moses for a whole day, he spoke to Moses on the subject the very same evening, and laid his plan before him; and on the other hand, the execution of this plan did not require a very long time, as the people were not scattered over a whole country, but were collected together in one camp. Moreover, Moses carried on all his negotiations with the people through the elders as their representatives; and the judges were not elected in modern fashion by universal suffrage, but were nominated by the people, i.e., by the natural representatives of the nation, from the body of elders, according to their tribes, and then appointed by Moses himself. - Again, it is by no means certain that Israel arrived at the desert of Sinai on the first day of the third month, and that only half a month (15 or 16 days) elapsed between their arrival in the desert of sin and their encamping at Sinai (cf. Exo 19:1). And lastly, though Kurtz still affirms that Jethro lived on the other side of the Elanitic Gulf, and did not set out till he heard of the defeat of the Amalekites, in which case a whole month might easily intervene between the victory of Israel and the arrival of Jethro, the two premises upon which this conclusion is based, are assumptions without foundation, as we have already shown at Exo 3:1 in relation to the former, and have just shown in relation to the latter.)

Keil-Delitzsch: Exo 18:6-11

When Jethro announced his arrival to Moses ("he said,"sc., through a messenger), he received his father-in-law with the honour due to his rank; and when he had conducted him to his tent, he related to him all the leading events connected with the departure from Egypt, and all the troubles they had met with on the way, and how Jehovah had delivered them out of them all. Jethro rejoiced at this, and broke out in praise to Jehovah, declaring that Jehovah was greater than all gods, i.e., that He had shown Himself to be exalted above all gods, for God is great in the eyes of men only when He makes known His greatness through the display of His omnipotence. He then gave a practical expression to his praise by a burnt-offering and slain-offering, which he presented to God. The second כּי in Exo 18:11 is only an emphatic repetition of the first, and אשׁר בּדּבר is not dependent upon ידעתּי , but upon גּדול nopu tub , or upon הגדּיל understood, which is to be supplied in thought after the second כּי : " That He has proved Himself great by the affair in which they (the Egyptians) dealt proudly against them (the Israelites)."Compare Neh 9:10, from which it is evident, that to refer these words to the destruction of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea as a punishment for their attempt to destroy the Israelites in the water (Exo 1:22) is too contracted an interpretation; and that they rather relate to all the measures adopted by the Egyptians for the oppression and detention of the Israelites, and signify that Jehovah had shown Himself great above all gods by all the plagues inflicted upon Egypt down to the destruction of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea.

Keil-Delitzsch: Exo 18:12

The sacrifices, which Jethro offered to God, were applied to a sacrificial meal, in which Moses joined, as well as Aaron and all the elders. Eating bread before God signified the holding of a sacrificial meal, which was eating before God, because it was celebrated in a holy place of sacrifice, where God was supposed to be present.

Keil-Delitzsch: Exo 18:13-23

The next day Jethro saw how Moses was occupied from morning till evening in judging the people, who brought all their disputes to him, that he might settle them according to the statutes of God. על עמד : as in Gen 18:8. The people came to Moses "to seek or inquire of God"(Gen 18:15), i.e., to ask for a decision from God: in most cases, this means to inquire through an oracle; here it signifies to desire a divine decision as to questions in dispute. By judging or deciding the cases brought before him, Moses made known to the people the ordinances and laws of God. For every decision was based upon some law, which, like all true justice here on earth, emanated first of all from God. This is the meaning of Gen 18:16, and not, as Knobel supposes, that Moses made use of the questions in dispute, at the time they were decided, as good opportunities for giving laws to the people. Jethro condemned this plan (Gen 18:18.) as exhausting, wearing out ( נבל lit., to fade away, Psa 37:2), both for Moses and the people: for the latter, inasmuch as they not only got wearied out through long waiting, but, judging from Gen 18:23, very often began to take the law into their own hands on account of the delay in the judicial decision, and so undermined the well-being of the community at large; and for Moses, inasmuch as the work was necessarily too great for him, and he could not continue for any length of time to sustain such a burden alone (Gen 18:18). The obsolete form of the inf. const. עשׂהוּ for עשׂתו is only used here, but is not without analogies in the Pentateuch. Jethro advised him (Gen 18:19.) to appoint judged from the people for all the smaller matters in dispute, so that in future only the more difficult cases, which really needed a superior or divine decision, would be brought to him that he might lay them before God. " I will give thee counsel, and God be with thee (i.e., help thee to carry out this advice): Be thou to the people האלהים מוּל , towards God, "i.e., lay their affairs before God, take the place of God in matters of judgment, or, as Luther expresses it, "take charge of the people before God."To this end, in the first place, he was to instruct the people in the commandments of God, and their own walk and conduct ( הזהיר with a double accusative, to enlighten, instruct; שדרך the walk, the whole behaviour; מעשׂה particular actions); secondly , he was to select able men ( חיל אנשׁי men of moral strength, 1Ki 1:52) as judges, men who were God-fearing, sincere, and unselfish (gain-hating), and appoint them to administer justice to the people, by deciding the simpler matters themselves, and only referring the more difficult questions to him, and so to lighten his own duties by sharing the burden with these judges. מעליך הקל (Gen 18:22) "make light of (that which lies) upon thee."If he would do this, and God would command him, he would be able to stand, and the people would come to their place, i.e., to Canaan, in good condition ( בּשׁלום ). The apodosis cannot begin with וצוּך , "then God will establish thee,"for צוּה never has this meaning; but the idea is this, "if God should preside over the execution of the plan proposed."

Keil-Delitzsch: Exo 18:24

Moses followed this sage advice, and, as he himself explains in Deu 1:12-18, directed the people to nominate wise, intelligent, and well-known men from the heads of the tribes, whom he appointed as judges, instructing them to administer justice with impartiality and without respect of persons.

Keil-Delitzsch: Exo 18:25-27

The judges chosen were arranged as chiefs ( שׂרים ) over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, after the analogy of the military organization of the people on their march (Num 31:14), in such a manner, however, that this arrangement was linked on to the natural division of the people into tribes, families, etc. (see my Archäologie , §140). For it is evident that the decimal division was not made in an arbitrary manner according to the number of heads, from the fact that, on the one hand, the judges were chosen from the heads of their tribes and according to their tribes (Deu 1:13); and on the other hand, the larger divisions of the tribes, viz., the families ( mishpachoth ), were also called thousands (Num 1:15; Num 10:4; Jos 22:14, etc.), just because the number of their heads of families would generally average about a thousand; so that in all probability the hundreds, fifties, and tens denote smaller divisions of the nation, in which there were about this number of fathers. Thus in Arabic, for example, " the ten "is a term used to signify a family (cf. Hengstenberg, Dissertations v. ii. 343, and my Arch. §149). The difference between the harder or greater matters and the smaller matters consisted in this: questions which there was not definite law to decide were great or hard; whereas, on the other hand, those which could easily be decided from existing laws or general principles of equity were simple or small. ( Vide Joh. Selden de Synedriis i. c. 16, in my Arch. §149, Not. 3, where the different views are discussed respecting the relative positions and competency of the various judges, about which there is no precise information given in the law.) So far as the total number of judges is concerned, all that can be affirmed with certainty is, that the estimated number of 600 judges over thousands, 6000 over hundreds, 12,000 over fifties, and 60,000 over tens, in all 78,600 judges, which is given by Grotius and in the Talmud, and according to which there must have been a judge for every seven adults, is altogether erroneous (cf. J. Selden l.c. pp. 339ff.). For if the thousands answered to the families (Mishpachoth), there cannot have been a thousand males in every one; and in the same way the hundreds, etc., are not to be understood as consisting of precisely that number of persons, but as larger or smaller family groups, the numerical strength of which we do not know. And even if we did know it, or were able to estimate it, this would furnish no criterion by which to calculate the number of the judges, for the text does not affirm that every one of these larger or smaller family groups had a judge of its own; in fact, the contrary may rather be inferred, from the fact that, according to Deu 1:15, the judges were chosen out of the heads of the tribes, so that the number of judges must have been smaller than that of the heads, and can hardly therefore have amounted to many hundreds, to say nothing of many thousands.

Constable: Exo 15:22--Lev 1:1

II. THE ADOPTION OF ISRAEL 15:22--40:38

The second major section of Exodus records the events associated with God's adoption of Israel as His chosen people. Having redeemed Israel out of slavery in Egypt He now made the nation His privileged son. Redemption is the end of one journey but the beginning of another.

Constable: Exo 18:1-27

5. The friendliness of Jethro the Midianite ch. 18

As a Midianite, Jethro was a descendant of Abraham as was Amalek. Both were blood relatives of the Israelites. Nevertheless the attitudes of the Amalekites and Jethro were very different, though Midian as a nation was hostile to Israel. Set next to each other in the text as they are, the experiences of Israel with Amalek and with Jethro illustrate two different attitudes that other nations held toward Israel. These differences have characterized the attitudes of outsiders toward God's elect throughout history.²⁹⁸ Jethro was a God-fearing man, part of a believing minority in Midian.

18:1-12 The names of Moses' sons (vv. 3-4) reflect his personal experiences in the providence of God. However not all biblical names carry such significance.

"It is a very precarious procedure to attempt to analyze the character or disposition of an Old Testament character on the basis of the etymology of his name alone."²⁹⁹

Many names were significant (e.g., Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel, etc.), but not all were.

The mount of God (v. 5) is the mountain where God revealed Himself and His law to Israel, Mt. Sinai. The wilderness was the wilderness near Sinai.

"Moses' summary [vv. 8-10] is a proof-of-Presence summary, a confession of Yahweh's powerful protection of and provision for Israel."³⁰⁰

Jethro acknowledged the sovereignty of God (v. 11). This does not prove he was a monotheist, though he could have been. He gave evidence of his faith by offering a burnt offering and by making sacrifices to Yahweh (v. 12). The meal that Moses, Aaron, and the Israelite elders ate with Jethro was the sacrificial meal just mentioned. Eating together in the ancient Near East was a solemn occasion because it constituted the establishment of an alliance between the parties involved. That is undoubtedly what it involved here. The fact that Aaron and all the elders of Israel were also present demonstrated its importance.

18:13-23 Moses experienced a crisis of overwork (cf. Acts 6:1-7). Previously he had had to cope with a lack of food and a lack of water. This section explains how he overcame the present crisis. It also explains the beginning of Israel's legal system. Here we see how the requirements and instructions of the Mosaic Covenant became accessible to the ordinary Israelite and applicable to the problems that arose as the Israelites oriented their lives to that code.³⁰¹

Clearly Israel already at this time had a body of revealed law (v. 16; cf. 15:26).³⁰² God greatly expanded this with the giving of the Mosaic Covenant.

Evidently the people were becoming unruly because Moses was not dispensing justice quickly (v. 23). Jethro's counsel was wise and practical, and he presented it subject to the will of God (v. 23). Moses may not have realized the seriousness of the problem he faced. He seems to have been a gifted administrator who would not have consciously let Israel's social welfare deteriorate. However, his "efficiency expert" father-in-law pointed out how he could manage his time better.

Notice the importance of modeling integrity in verse 21. Integrity means matching walk with talk, practicing what one preaches. This has always been an important qualification for leaders.

"Mr. [Dwight L.] Moody said shrewdly: It is better to set a hundred men to work, than do the work of a hundred men. You do a service to a man when you evoke his latent faculty. It is no kindness to others or service to God to do more than your share in the sacred duties of Church life."³⁰³

18:24-27 Moses allowed the people to nominate wise, respected men from their tribes whom he appointed as judges (v. 25; cf. Deut. 1:12-18). These men handled the routine disputes of the Israelites, and this kept Moses free to resolve the major problems.

Jethro returned to his native land (v. 27), but he visited Moses and his daughter and grandchildren again (cf. Num. 10:29), perhaps often during the following 40 years.

"In times of great crises God always provided men to lead the way to deliverance. Moses is an eloquent example of this very fact. The hand of God providentially prepared this man for this very moment. He was cognizant of Egyptian manners and was therefore able to articulate demands before the King of Egypt. Moses had been trained in military matters and was therefore capable of organizing this large mass of people for movement across the deserts. His training in Egypt had given him the ability to write and therefore provided a means by which these accounts would be recorded for eternity. Forty years of desert experience had given Moses the know-how of travel in these areas as well as the kind of preparation that would be needed to survive the desert heat. All of this a mere accident of history? No indeed. The history before us is a supreme example of God's sovereign ability to accomplish His purposes for His people. Those who belong to Him have every reason to be confident that that which God has promised He will perform."³⁰⁴

"The present narrative has many parallels with the accounts in Genesis 14 and 15. Just as Melchizedek the priest of Salem (salem) met Abraham bearing gifts as he returned from the battle with Amraphel (Ge 14:18-20), so Jethro the Midianite priest came out with Moses' wife and sons to offer peace (salom, 18:7; NIV they greeted each other') as he returned from the battle with the Amalekites. . . . The purpose of these parallels appears to be to cast Jethro as another Melchizedek, the paradigm of the righteous Gentile. It is important that Jethro have such credentials because he plays a major role in this chapter, instructing Moses, the lawgiver himself, how to carry out the administration of God's Law to Israel. Thus, just as Abraham was met by Melchizedek the priest (Ge 14) before God made a covenant with him in Genesis 15, so Moses is met by Jethro the priest (Ex 18) before God makes a covenant with him at Sinai (Ex 19)."³⁰⁵

Melchizedek (Gen. 14:17-24)	Jethro (Exod. 18:1-27)
He was a Gentile priest of Salem (Gen. 14:18).	He was a Gentile priest of Midian (Exod. 18:1).
He met Abraham bearing gifts as Abraham returned from defeating the Mesopotamians (Gen. 14:18).	He met Moses as Moses returned from defeating the Amalekites (Exod. 18:5).
He brought gifts to Abraham (Gen. 14:18).	He brought Moses' wife and sons to Moses (Exod. 18:2-6).
He was king of peace (Heb. salem, Gen. 14:18).	He offered Moses peace (Heb. salom, Exod. 18:7).
Abraham's heir was Eliezer ("God is my help," Gen. 15:2).	Moses' heir was Eliezer ("God is my help," Exod. 18:4).
He praised God for rescuing Abraham from the Amalekites (Gen. 14:19-20).	He praised God for rescuing Moses from the Egyptians (Exod. 18:10-11).
He offered bread and wine (Gen. 14:18).	He offered sacrifices and ate bread with Moses (Exod. 18:12).

Guzik: Exo 18:1-27

Exodus 18 - Jethro's Counsel to Moses

A. Jethro and Moses meet.

1. (1-6) Moses meets with Jethro, his father-in-law, in the desert of Midian.

And Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people; that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt. Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back, with her two sons, of whom the name of one was Gershom (for he said, "I have been a stranger in a foreign land") and the name of the other was Eliezer (for he said, "The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh"); and Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. Now he had said to Moses, "I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her."

a. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back, with her two sons: Moses was here re-united with his wife Zipporah and his two sons Gershon and Eliezer. Apparently Moses sent his family back to Midian at some time, perhaps during the plagues of Egypt.

b. I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you: Moses had a special relationship with Jethro. Even though he was raised in all the wisdom and education of Egypt, Moses no doubt learned more about real leadership from the priest and shepherd Jethro - whose flocks Moses tended until his call at Sinai.

2. (7-12) Jethro glorifies God when Moses reports what the LORD has done.

So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and kissed him. And they asked each other about their well-being, and they went into the tent. And Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and how the LORD had delivered them. Then Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the LORD had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Jethro said, "Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them." Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.

a. All the hardship . . . and how the LORD had delivered them: Moses gave Jethro an honest report, describing both the hardships and the deliverance.

b. Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods: It is possible Jethro knew this before, because he was the priest of Midian (Exodus 18:1). But when he heard of God's great works over the gods of Egypt, it brought this truth to Jethro more clearly than before.

B. Jethro's advice to Moses.

1. (13-16) Jethro observes Moses as he settles disputes among the children of Israel.

And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. So when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, "What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?" And Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws."

a. Moses sat to judge the people: Among such a large group there would naturally be many disputes and questions of interpretation to settle. Apparently Moses was virtually the only recognized judge in the nation, and the job of hearing each case occupied Moses from morning until evening.

b. And I make known the statutes of God and His laws: Because Moses knew the Word of God, he was fit to settle disputes among the children of Israel. Yet taking all this responsibility to himself was a massive burden.

2. (17-23) Jethro advises Moses to delegate the job of settling disputes.

So Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself. Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace."

a. The thing that you do is not good: It wasn't that Moses was unfit to hear their disputes; it wasn't that he didn't care about their disputes; it wasn't that the job was beneath him, it wasn't that the people didn't want Moses to hear their disputes. The problem was simply that the job was too big for Moses to do. His energies were spent unwisely. Moses must delegate, even as in Acts 6:2-4, the apostles insisted they needed to delegate so they would not leave the word of God and serve tables.

i. Much to Moses' credit, he was teachable; when Jethro said the thing that you do is not good, Moses listened to Jethro. Moses knew how to not bow to the complaints of the children of Israel (Exodus 17:3), but also knew how to hear godly counsel from a man like Jethro.

b. Stand before God for the people: This was the first essential step in effective delegation for Moses. He had to pray for the people. Delegation will not work if God is not in it.

c. Teach them the statutes and the laws: For Moses to effectively delegate, he had to teach the Word of God not only to those who would hear the disputes, but also those who might dispute.

i. If the people knew God's word for themselves, many disputes could be settled immediately. Also, if the people knew God's word for themselves, they would not be discouraged if they could not bring their case to Moses himself - they could know one of Moses' delegates was able give them counsel from God's wisdom.

d. Select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth: This was the next step in effective delegation for Moses. Delegation fails if the job is not put into the hands of able, godly men. Only particular men were fit for this job:

· Men of ability: able men

· Men of godliness: such as fear God

· Men of God's Word: men of truth

· Men of honor: hating covetousness

i. Paul gave the same counsel to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2: And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

e. Every great matter they shall bring to you: For Moses to effectively delegate, he must still have oversight and leadership over those under him. Delegation is the exercise of leadership, not the abandoning of it.

f. You will be able to endure: This is the first reward for effective delegation. Moses would enjoy life and be able to do his job better than ever. The second reward was that all this people will also go their place in peace; that is, the people would be effectively ministered to.

i. This method also had the advantage of settling problems quickly because people didn't need to wait in line for Moses. "The longer a controversy lasts, the worse the tangle becomes, the more hot words are spoken, the more bystanders become involved." (Meyer) Jesus said we should agree with our adversary quickly (Matthew 5:25).

3. (24-27) Moses follows Jethro's suggestions; Jethro departs.

So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. So they judged the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way to his own land.

a. Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said: Moses wisely followed Jethro's counsel, and surely this extended his ministry and made him more effective.

i. "It is better to set a hundred men to work than to do the work of a hundred men." (D.L. Moody)

b. Rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: In Moses' method of administration, some had a higher position than others. Yet God honored the faithful service of the rulers of tens as much as the service of the rulers of thousands.

© 2004 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission

Introduction / Outline

JFB: Exodus (Book Introduction)

EXODUS, a "going forth," derives its name from its being occupied principally with a relation of the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, and the incidents that immediately preceded as well as followed that memorable migration. Its authorship by Moses is distinctly asserted by himself (Exo 24:4), as well as by our Lord (Mar 12:26; Luk 20:37). Besides, the thorough knowledge it exhibits of the institutions and usages of the ancient Egyptians and the minute geographical details of the journey to Sinai, establish in the clearest manner the authenticity of this book.

JFB: Exodus (Outline)

• INCREASE OF THE ISRAELITES. (Exo. 1:1-22)
• BIRTH AND PRESERVATION OF MOSES. (Exo 2:1-10) there went a man of the house of Levi, &c. Amram was the husband and Jochebed the wife (compare Exo 6:20; Num 26:59). The marriage took place, and two children, Miriam and Aaron, were born some years before the infanticidal edict.
• HIS SYMPATHY WITH THE HEBREWS. (Exo 2:11-25)
• DIVINE APPEARANCE AND COMMISSION TO MOSES. (Exo. 3:1-22)
• MIRACULOUS CHANGE OF THE ROD, &c. (Exo. 4:1-31)
• FIRST INTERVIEW WITH PHARAOH. (Exo. 5:1-23)
• RENEWAL OF THE PROMISE. (Exo 6:1-13)
• THE GENEALOGY OF MOSES. (Exo. 6:14-30)
• SECOND INTERVIEW WITH PHARAOH. (Exo. 7:1-25)
• PLAGUE OF FROGS. (Exo 8:1-15)
• PLAGUE OF LICE. (Exo 8:16-19)
• PLAGUE OF FLIES. (Exo 8:20-32)
• MURRAIN OF BEASTS. (Exo 9:1-7)
• PLAGUE OF BOILS. (Exo 9:8-17)
• PLAGUE OF HAIL. (Exo. 9:18-35)
• PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS. (Exo. 10:1-20)
• PLAGUE OF DARKNESS. (Exo 10:21-29)
• DEATH OF THE FIRST-BORN THREATENED. (Exo 11:1-10)
• THE PASSOVER INSTITUTED. (Exo 12:1-10)
• THE RITE OF THE PASSOVER. (Exo 12:11-14)
• UNLEAVENED BREAD. (Exo. 12:15-51)
• THE FIRST-BORN SANCTIFIED. (Exo 13:1-2)
• MEMORIAL OF THE PASSOVER. (Exo 13:3-10)
• FIRSTLINGS OF BEASTS. (Exo 13:11-16)
• JOURNEY FROM EGYPT. (Exo 13:17-21)
• GOD INSTRUCTS THE ISRAELITES AS TO THEIR JOURNEY. (Exo. 14:1-31)
• SONG OF MOSES. (Exo. 15:1-27)
• MURMURS FOR WANT OF BREAD. (Exo. 16:1-36)
• THE PEOPLE MURMUR FOR WATER. (Exo 17:1-7)
• ATTACK OF AMALEK. (Exo 17:8-16)
• VISIT OF JETHRO. (Exo. 18:1-27)
• ARRIVAL AT SINAI. (Exo. 19:1-25)
• THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. (Exo. 20:1-26)
• LAWS FOR MENSERVANTS. (Exo 21:1-6)
• LAWS FOR MAIDSERVANTS. (Exo. 21:7-36)
• LAWS CONCERNING THEFT. (Exo. 22:1-31)
• LAWS CONCERNING SLANDER, &c. (Exo. 23:1-33)
• DELIVERY OF THE LAW AND COVENANT. (Exo. 24:1-18)
• CONCERNING AN OFFERING. (Exo. 25:1-40)
• TEN CURTAINS. (Exo. 26:1-37)
• ALTAR FOR BURNT OFFERING. (Exo. 27:1-21)
• APPOINTMENT TO THE PRIESTHOOD. (Exo. 28:1-43)
• CONSECRATING THE PRIESTS AND THE ALTAR. (Exo. 29:1-35)
• CONSECRATION OF THE ALTAR. (Exo 29:36-37)
• INSTITUTION OF DAILY SERVICE. (Exo 29:38-46)
• THE ALTAR OF INCENSE. (Exo. 30:1-38)
• BEZALEEL AND AHOLIAB. (Exo. 31:1-18)
• THE GOLDEN CALF. (Exo. 32:1-35)
• THE LORD REFUSES TO GO WITH THE PEOPLE. (Exo. 33:1-23)
• THE TABLES ARE RENEWED. (Exo. 34:1-35)
• CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE TABERNACLE. (Exo. 35:1-35)
• OFFERINGS DELIVERED TO THE WORKMEN. (Exo. 36:1-38)
• FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE. (Exo. 37:1-29)
• FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE. (Exo. 38:1-31)
• GARMENTS OF THE PRIESTS. (Exo. 39:1-43)
• THE TABERNACLE REARED AND ANOINTED. (Exo. 40:1-38)

TSK: Exodus (Book Introduction)

The title of this Book is derived from the Septuagint; in which it is called ΕΞΟΔΟΣ , " Exodus;" or, as it is in the Codex Alexandrinus, ΕΞΟΔΟΣ Αιγυπτου , " the Exodus or departure from Egypt;" but it is called in Hebrew Bibles ואלה שׁמות , Weelleh Shemoth , " these are the names," or merely, שׁמות , Shemoth , " names," from the words with which it commences.

Moses was undoubtedly the author of this Book, which forms a continuation of the preceding, and was evidently written after the promulgation of the law. it embraces the history of about 145 years. Moses, having in the Book of Genesis described the creation of the world, the origin of nations, and the peopling of the earth, details in the Book of Exodus the commencement and nature of the Jewish Church and Polity, which has very properly been termed a Theocracy (Θεοκρατια , from Θεος [Strong’s 2316], God, and κρατεω [Strong’s 2902], to rule), in which Jehovah appears not merely as their Creator and God, but as their King. Hence this and the following books of Moses are not purely historical; but contain not only laws for the regulation of their moral conduct and the rites and ceremonies of their religious worship, but judicial and political laws relating to government and civil life. The stupendous facts connected with these events, may be clearly perceived by consulting the marginal references; and many of the circumstances are confirmed by the testimony of heathen writers. Numenius, a Pythagorean philosopher, mentioned by Eusebius, speaks of the opposition of the magicians, whom he calls Jannes and Jambres, to the miracles of Moses. Though the names of these magicians are not preserved in the Sacred Text, yet tradition had preserved them in the Jewish records, from which St. Paul (2Ti 3:8) undoubtedly quotes. Add to this that many of the notions of the heathen respecting the appearance of the Deity, and their religious institutions and laws, were borrowed from this book; and many of their fables were nothing more than distorted traditions of those events which are here plainly related by Moses.

TSK: Exodus 18 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Exo 18:1, Jethro brings his wife and two sons to Moses; Exo 18:7, Moses entertains him, and relates the goodness of the Lord; Exo 18:9, Jethro rejoices, blesses God, and offers sacrifice; Exo 18:13, He gives good counsel, which is accepted; Exo 18:27, Jethro departs.

Poole: Exodus (Book Introduction)

SECOND BOOK OF MOSES CALLED EXODUS.

THE ARGUMENT.

AFTER the death of Joseph, who had sent for his father’ s house into Egypt, the children of Israel exceedingly multiplied, notwithstanding Pharaoh’ s cruel oppressing of them; from under which God, hearing their cry, brought them with a strong hand. Wherefore this book is called by the Greeks EXODUS, i.e. a going forth; containing an historical account of passages for about one hundred and forty years; with the wonderful raising up of Moses, who, together with Aaron, were to be instruments of their deliverance; and accordingly, after the inflicting ten dreadful plagues upon Pharaoh, brought them into the wilderness through the Red Sea, wherein Pharaoh (his heart being hardened under all these plagues) and all his host pursuing of them were drowned; God having first instituted the passover, as an abiding sacrament to bring to their remembrance in after-times this great deliverance.

In their conduct through the wilderness, God gave them the signal mark of his presence in the pillar of a cloud, and the pillar of fire; who, notwithstanding their great and reiterated murmurings, gave them food, both bread and flesh from heaven, and drink out of the rock; and when they were come to Mount Sinai, he there gave them the moral law, beside other both politic and ecclesiastical ordinances. Afterwards, the breaking of the tables being occasioned by the idolatry of the golden calf, God graciously renewed his covenant with them. There being also a tabernacle, and ark, and other things to be made by God’ s command, the bounty of the people, in order to the making and furnishing thereof, is here set down; which, being finished, the tabernacle is anointed, and filled with the glory of God.

Poole: Exodus 18 (Chapter Introduction)

CHAPTER 18

Jethro cometh to Moses with his wife and his children; their names, Exo 18:1-5 . Moses going to meet his father, does obeisance, Exo 18:7 ; and relates to him God’ s providence, Exo 18:8 . Jethro’ s joy and thanksgiving, Exo 18:9,10 ; confesseth God’ s power therein, Exo 18:11 . Jethro sacrificeth, Exo 18:12 . Moses’ s judging the people, Exo 18:13 , disliked by his father, Exo 18:14 . Moses’ s answer, Exo 18:15,16 . Jethro’ s advice, Exo 18:19-23 . Moses hearkening to his father, Exo 18:24 , chooseth able men for rulers, Exo 18:25 ; who always judged the people, Exo 18:26 . Jethro’ s departure, Exo 18:27 .

MHCC: Exodus (Book Introduction)

The Book of Exodus relates the forming of the children of Israel into a church and a nation. We have hitherto seen true religion shown in domestic life, now, we begin to trace its effects upon the concerns of kingdoms and nations. Exodus signifies " the departure;" the chief event therein recorded is the departure of Israel from Egypt and Egyptian bondage; it plainly points out the fulfilling of several promises and prophecies to Abraham respecting his seed, and shadows forth the state of the church, in the wilderness of this world, until her arrival at the heavenly Canaan, an eternal rest.

MHCC: Exodus 18 (Chapter Introduction)

(Exo 18:1-6) Jethro brings to Moses his wife and two sons.

(Exo 18:7-12) Moses entertains Jethro.

(Exo 18:13-27) Jethro's counsel to Moses.

Matthew Henry: Exodus (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Second Book of Moses, Called Exodus

Moses (the servant of the Lord in writing for him as well as in acting for him - with the pen of God as well as with the rod of God in his hand) having, in the first book of his history, preserved and transmitted the records of the church, while it existed in private families, comes, in this second book, to give us an account of its growth into a great nation; and, as the former furnishes us with the best economics, so this with the best politics. The beginning of the former book shows us how God formed the world for himself; the beginning of this shows us how he formed Israel for himself, and both show forth his praise, Isa 43:21. There we have the creation of the world in history, here the redemption of the world in type. The Greek translators called this book Exodus (which signifies a departure or going out ) because it begins with the story of the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt. Some allude to the names of this and the foregoing book, and observe that immediately after Genesis, which signifies the beginning or original, follows Exodus, which signifies a departure; for a time to be born is immediately succeeded by a time to die. No sooner have we made our entrance into the world than we must think of making our exit, and going out of the world. When we begin to live we begin to die. The forming of Israel into a people was a new creation. As the earth was, in the beginning, first fetched from under water, and then beautified and replenished, so Israel was first by an almighty power made to emerge out of Egyptian slavery, and then enriched with God's law and tabernacle. This book gives us, I. The accomplishment of the promises made before to Abraham (ch. 1-19), and then, II. The establishment of the ordinances which were afterwards observed by Israel (ch. 20-40). Moses, in this book, begins, like Caesar, to write his own Commentaries; nay, a greater, a far greater, than Caesar is here. But henceforward the penman is himself the hero, and gives us the history of those things of which he was himself an eye and ear-witness, et quorum pars magna fuit - and in which he bore a conspicuous part. There are more types of Christ in this book than perhaps in any other book of the Old Testament; for Moses wrote of him, Joh 5:46. The way of man's reconciliation to God, and coming into covenant and communion with him by a Mediator, is here variously represented; and it is of great use to us for the illustration of the New Testament, now that we have that to assist us in the explication of the Old.

Matthew Henry: Exodus 18 (Chapter Introduction)

This chapter is concerning Moses himself, and the affairs of his own family. I. Jethro his father-in-law brings to him his wife and children (Exo 18:1-6). II. Moses entertains his father-in-law with great respect (Exo 18:7), with good discourse (Exo 18:8-11), with a sacrifice and a feast (Exo 18:12). III. Jethro advises him about the management of his business as a judge in Israel, to take inferior judges in to his assistance (Exo 18:13-23), and Moses, after some time, takes his counsel (Exo 18:24-26), and so they part (Exo 18:27).

Constable: Exodus (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Title

The Hebrew title of this book (we'elleh shemot) originated from the ancient practice of naming a Bible book after its first word or words. "Now these are the names of" is the translation of the first two Hebrew words.

"The Hebrew title of the Book of Exodus, therefore, was to remind us that Exodus is the sequel to Genesis and that one of its purposes is to continue the history of God's people as well as elaborate further on the great themes so nobly introduced in Genesis."¹

Exodus cannot stand alone. It would not make much sense without Genesis. The very first word of the book, translated "now," is a conjunction that means "and."

The English title "Exodus" is a transliteration of the Greek word exodos from the Septuagint translation meaning "exit," "way out," or "departure." The Septuagint translators gave the book this title because of the major event in it, namely, the Israelites' departure from Egypt.

"The exodus is the most significant historical and theological event of the Old Testament . . ."²

Date and Writer

Moses, who lived from about 1525 to 1405 B.C., wrote Exodus. He could have written it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit any time after the events recorded (after about 1444 B.C.). He may have written it during the year the Israelites camped at the base of Mt. Sinai. He may have done so during the 38-year period of wandering in the wilderness following the Israelites' failure to enter the land from Kadesh Barnea (cf. Num. 13-14; ca. 1443-1405 B.C.). On the other hand he may have written it on the plains of Moab just before his death (cf. 16:35).³

Scope

Exodus embraces about 431 years of history, from the arrival of Jacob and his family in Egypt (ca. 1876 B.C.) to the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness of Sinai (ca. 1445 B.C.). However 1:1-7 is a review of Jacob's family. If we eliminate this section, the narrative resumes the story of the Israelites where Genesis ends, after the death of Joseph. About 364 years elapsed between the death of Joseph and the building of the tabernacle. The bulk of the book (chs. 3-40) deals with only two of these years, the year before and the year after the Exodus from Egypt. The Exodus event is clearly the focus of this book.

The Israelites lived in Egypt 430 years (12:40). Genesis 15:13 has the round number 400 years as the time of Israel's oppression in Egypt.⁴

Purpose

"The purpose of the Book of Exodus is to celebrate God's gracious deliverance of His chosen people Israel from Egyptian slavery to the freedom of covenant relationship and fellowship with Him."⁵

Importance

"No other biblical book surfaces elsewhere in the OT as frequently as the Book of Exodus does; in the NT only the Books of Psalms and Isaiah are cited more, and that for the fairly obvious reasons of liturgy and messianism."⁶

Message⁷

The great contribution of this book is the revelation that Yahweh is the sovereign God who provides deliverance for man from the slavery in which he finds himself.

The major teaching of Exodus is primarily threefold.

1. The sovereignty of God.

2. The salvation of man.

3. The methods by which the sovereign God affects man's salvation.

First, Exodus teaches the sovereignty of God.

In Genesis we learned that the only way we can realize the purpose for which God created us is through faith in a trustworthy God that expresses itself in obedience.

In Exodus we learn that the God with whom we can have a relationship is not only trustworthy but sovereign. This realization should produce within us the double effect of worship and obedience.

Sovereignty is the attribute of God that expresses the fact that Yahweh is the ultimate ruler of the universe. There is no one higher in authority than He. As sovereign, He has all power. Sovereignty does not refer to how God rules, the method by which He governs. In particular, it does not imply that God controls every detail of life immediately (directly). God exercises His sovereignty by allowing human beings certain freedoms. He does not control us like puppets on strings but as a father controls his children. We have limited freedom.

We can see God's sovereignty clearly in His superiority over all the so-called gods of Egypt. He displayed His great power in all of His activity that resulted in the liberation of the Israelites and His adoption of them as His people. Scripture teaches both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. No one has been able to explain this mystery adequately (cf. Job).

Second, Exodus teaches the salvation of man.

In Genesis we saw the need for salvation (i.e., the Fall and the repeated failures of man).

In Exodus, God revealed the method of salvation and explained the consequences of salvation initially.

Exodus teaches that God provides salvation for man. Man does not provide it for himself. It also reveals that man appropriates what God has provided by faith.

Two activities become prominent as major expressions of faith in Exodus: worship and obedience. Worship and obedience are the Godward and the manward expressions of faith respectively.

Worship consists of putting God at the center of life (cf. Rom. 12:1-2). Worship was to characterize the Israelites nationally and personally. God illustrated the importance of placing Him at the center of life by locating the ark of the covenant in the center of the tabernacle. He further did so by placing the tabernacle in the center of the Israelite camp.

Obedience consists of arranging all the parts of life in proper relation to God who is at the center. If something in life does not orient toward God properly, there is disobedience. In this way Exodus deepens the revelation concerning obedience that God has given us in Genesis.

Third, Exodus teaches the methods by which the sovereign God affects man's salvation.

God's method of dealing with the human race generally (outside Israel) was by creating a pattern, namely, the nation of Israel. God created the nation of Israel so that He could demonstrate through Israel for all other nations and peoples to see how glorious it can be to live under God's government. God's election of Israel was not the selection of a pet that God would favor at the expense of all others. It was the construction of a pattern. Israel was to be a demonstration to all the world of how wonderful life can be under the rule of Yahweh (cf. 19:5-6).

God's method of dealing with Israel was by revealing a person, namely, Himself. In many revelations to the Israelites, God sought to deepen their understanding of and appreciation for Himself and His will. The special privilege of receiving the revelation was a blessing to them and should have resulted in their being a blessing to the whole world. Israel was to do this by demonstrating how good it is to live under God's kingship. Some of the most important revelations occur in the following passages: 3:4-16; 6:2-8; 19:3-6; 20:1-7; 24:1, 9-11; 34:5-8; and 40:34-35. They are not all different, but God intended them to have the cumulative effect of deepening the Israelites' concept of God. They came to the people like waves beating on the shore. All the details of the Mosaic Code, which begins in Exodus and continues through Numbers, reinforce the main point of this revelation, which is the character of God.

God's method of dealing with individuals was by providing opportunities, choices.

We can see this most easily in God's dealing with the two major characters in Exodus, Moses and Pharaoh. God's method of dealing with both men was the same, but their responses were different and consequently so were their fates.

Pharaoh was a strong, wise leader who acted wholly by sight rather than by faith in Yahweh. He is typical of people of the world. God's method of dealing with him was to give him opportunities to make the right choices and so experience the blessing of God. Pharaoh chose not to trust God, and his disobedience resulted in personal tragedy for himself and national tragedy for Egypt.

Moses on the other hand was also a strong, wise leader, but he acted by faith rather than by sight (Heb. 11:27). God's method of dealing with him in Exodus was the same. He gave him opportunities to make the right choices and so experience God's blessing. Moses chose to trust and obey God, and his life is a story of personal triumph and national triumph for Israel.

In both cases God patiently worked with these representative individuals and gently encouraged them to do His will. Moses developed into a noble character because he chose to submit to God's government even though he was faulty, failing, and fearful. Pharaoh was a more admirable person in many respects, but he sank into destruction because he chose to refuse to submit to God's government (authoritative rule).

Exodus teaches that individuals are personally responsible under God, and their choices determine their destinies. There is ample New Testament evidence for this in John 1:12; 3:16, 36; 5:24; 6:47; 20:31; et al. Divine sovereignty does not negate human responsibility.

If we look at the record of God's activity in Exodus, we see progress. The unbelief of His enemies does not frustrate Him. His ultimate purposes for Israel came to fruition.

However if we look at the record of man's activity in this book, we see failure. Even Moses, Aaron, and the Israelites who trusted God constantly failed. We observed this in the lives of the characters in Genesis as well.

While man constantly falls short of what God requires, human failure does not frustrate God's ultimate purposes. This proves that God is indeed sovereign.

Constable: Exodus (Outline)

Outline

I. The liberation of Israel 1:1-15:21

A. God's preparation of Israel and Moses chs. 1-4

1. The growth of Jacob's family 1:1-7

2. The Israelites' bondage in Egypt 1:8-22

3. Moses' birth and education 2:1-10

4. Moses' flight from Egypt to Midian 2:11-15

5. Moses' life in Midian 2:16-25

6. Moses' call 3:1-4:18

7. Moses' return to Egypt 4:19-31

B. God's demonstrations of His sovereignty chs. 5-11

1. Pharaoh's response to Moses and Aaron's initial request 5:1-6:1

2. Moses and Aaron's equipment as God's messengers 6:2-7:7

3. The attestation of Moses and Aaron's divine mission 7:8-13

4. The first three plagues 7:14-8:19

5. The fourth, fifth, and sixth plagues 8:20-9:12

6. The seventh, eight, and ninth plagues 9:13-10:29

7. The proclamation of the tenth plague ch. 11

C. God's redemption of His people 12:1-13:16

1. The consecration of Israel as the covenant nation 12:1-28

2. The death of the first-born and the release of Israel 12:29-36

3. The exodus of Israel out of Egypt 12:37-42

4. Regulations concerning the Passover 12:43-51

5. The sanctification of the first-born 13:1-16

D. God's completion of Israel's liberation 13:17-15:21

1. The journey from Succoth to Etham 13:17-22

2. Israel's passage through the Red Sea ch. 14

3. Israel's song of deliverance 15:1-21

II. The adoption of Israel 15:22-40:38

A. God's preparatory instruction of Israel 15:22-18:27

1. Events in the wilderness of Shur 15:22-27

2. Quails and manna in the wilderness of Sin ch. 16

3. The lack of water at Rephidim 17:1-7

4. The hostility of the Amalekites 17:18-36

5. The friendliness of Jethro the Midianite ch. 18

B. The establishment of the Mosaic Covenant 19:1-24:11

1. Preparation for the Covenant ch. 19

2. The Ten Commandments 20:1-17

3. The response of the Israelites 20:18-21

4. The stipulations of the Book of the Covenant 20:22-23:33

5. The ratification of the Covenant 24:1-11

C. Directions regarding God's dwelling among His people 24:12-31:18

1. The revelation of these directions 24:12-18

2. Contributions for the construction of the sanctuary 25:1-9

3. The tabernacle furnishings 25:10-41

4. The tabernacle structure ch. 26

5. The tabernacle courtyard 27:1-19

6. The investiture of the priests 27:20-28:43

7. The consecration of the priests 29:1-37

8. The service of the priests 29:38-30:38

9. The builders of the tabernacle 31:1-11

10. The sign of the Sabbath 31:12-18

D. The breaking and renewing of the covenant chs. 32-34

1. The failure of Israel ch. 32

2. The re-establishment of fellowship ch. 33

3. The renewal of the covenant ch. 34

E. The construction and dedication of the objects used in Israel's worship chs. 35-40

1. Preparations for construction 35:1-36:7

2. Execution of the work 36:8-39:43

3. The erection and consecration of the tabernacle ch. 40

In an interesting and original chart of Exodus, Ted Grove suggested the following structural outline of Exodus.⁸

I. Israel's liberation chs. 1-18

A. Israel's affliction (Israel is Egypt's possession) 1:1-2:14

B. Deliverance 2:15-18:27

Ted saw the following chiastic structure in this section.

A Midian: Moses' commission 2:15-4:28

B Enemy: Egypt defeated 4:29-15:21

C Water: bitter to sweet and 12 springs 15:22-27

D Food: manna and quail ch. 16

C' Water: out of rock 17:1-7

B' Enemy: Amalek defeated 17:8-16

A' Midian: Moses accepts wisdom ch. 18

II. Israel's adoption chs. 19-40

A. Covenant delivered 19:1-24:11

B. Sanctuary planned 24:12-31:18

C. Covenant broken ch. 32

D. Covenant renewed chs. 33-34

E. Sanctuary's construction 35:1-40:33

F. Covenant sealed (Israel is God's possession) 40:34-38

Ted also saw a chiasm in this part of the book.

A Covenant delivered 19:1-24:11

B Tabernacle planned 24:12-27:21

C Priestly instructions chs. 28-30

D Craftsmen's direction 31:1-11

E Sabbath instructions 31:12-18

F Covenant broken ch. 32

F' Covenant renewed chs. 33-34

E' Sabbath reminded 35:1-3

D' Craftsmen and construction 35:4-38:31

C' Priests prepared ch. 39

B' Tabernacle completed 40:1-33

A' Covenant sealed 40:34-38

The center of the first chiasm is the manna. The center of the second chiasm is the tablets of the Law. These were the two items God instructed Moses to preserve in the ark of the covenant.

Ted saw the key verse of the book as 34:9.

Constable: Exodus

Exodus

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_____. "The Sabbath Controversy." Biblical Research Monthly 49:4 (July-August 1984):14-16.

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Exodus (Book Introduction)

THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

INTRODUCTION.

The second Book of Moses is called Exodus from the Greek word Exodos, which signifies going out; because it contains the history of the going out of the children of Israel out of Egypt. The Hebrews, from the words with which it begins, call it Veelle Shemoth : These are the names. (Challoner) --- It contains the space of 143 years, till the beginning of the second year after the liberation of the Israelites. (Tirinus) --- Their slavery is described in the first chapters; and is supposed to have continued ninety years. (Du Hamel) --- The laws prescribed by God to his people, the sacrifices, tabernacle, &c., were all intended to prefigure the Christian dispensation. (St. Augustine, City of God vii. 31.) --- Moses himself was a type of Jesus Christ, who was rejected by the synagogue, and received by the Gentiles, as the Jewish Legislator was abandoned by his mother, and educated by the Egyptian princess. She delivers him back to his mother; and thus the Jews will, at last, acknowledge our Saviour. (Du Hamel) --- God deigns to address his people in the character of a powerful Eastern monarch, and requires the like attention. He appoints his ministers, like guards, to attend before his tabernacle, &c. The laws which he enacts, are such as suited the Jewish people: they were not to rise all at once to perfection; but these laws guide them, as it were, on the road. They are infinitely more perfect than those of the surrounding nations. (Calmet)

Gill: Exodus (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS

This book is called by the Jews Veelleh Shemoth, from the first words with which it begins, and sometimes Sepher Shemoth, and sometimes only Shemoth. It is by the Septuagint called Exodus, from whom we have the name of Exodus, which signifies "a going out"; see Luk 9:31, because it treats of the going of the children of Israel out of Egypt; and hence in the Alexandrian copy it is called the Exodus of Egypt; and so the Syriac version entitles it the second book of the law, called "the going out"; and to the same purpose the Arabic version. The Jews sometimes give it the name of Nezikin, as Buxtorf ^a observes out of the Masora on Gen 24:8 because in it some account is given of losses, and the restitution of them. That this book is of divine inspiration, and to be reckoned in the canon of the sacred writings, is sufficiently evident to all that believe the New Testament; since there are so many quotations out of it there by Christ, and his apostles; particularly see Mar 12:26 and that it was wrote by Moses is not to be doubted, but when is not certain; it must be after the setting up of the tabernacle in the wilderness; the greatest part of what is contained in it, he was an eye and ear witness of; it plainly points out the accomplishment of the promises and prophecies delivered to Abraham, that his posterity would be very numerous, that they would be afflicted in a land not theirs, and in the fourth generation come out of it with great substance. It treats of the afflictions of the Israelites in Egypt, after the death of Joseph, until their deliverance by Moses; of his birth, calling, and mission to Pharaoh, to demand of him to let the children of Israel go; of the ten plagues upon him and his people, for refusing to dismiss them; of the departure of Israel from Egypt, and the institution of the passover on that account; of their passage through the Red sea into the wilderness, and of the various exercises and afflictions, supplies and supports they met with there; of the giving of a body of laws unto them, moral, ceremonial, and judicial; and of the building of the tabernacle, and all things appertaining to it; and throughout the whole, as there is a figure and representation of the passage of the people of God out of spiritual Egypt, through the wilderness of this world, to the heavenly Canaan, and of various things they must meet with in their passage, so there are many types of Christ, his person, office, and grace, and of his church, his word, and ordinances, which are very edifying and instructing. The book contains a history of about one hundred and forty years, from the death of Joseph, to the erection of the tabernacle.

Gill: Exodus 18 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 18

This chapter gives an account of Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, with Zipporah his daughter, the wife of Moses, and her two sons, meeting him in the wilderness, who was kindly received by him, Exo 18:1 and on Moses' relating the great things God had done for Israel, Jethro expressed his joy on that account, gave praise to God, offered sacrifice, and kept a feast with the elders of Israel, Exo 18:8, and observing the constant and fatiguing business Moses had on his hands from morning to evening in judging the people, Exo 18:13, he gave him advice to appoint persons under him to receive laws and ordinances from him, he should have from God, and, according to them, judge and govern the people under them, some being rulers of thousands, others of hundreds, others of fifties, and some of tens, Exo 18:19, which counsel was acceptable to Moses, and he took it, Exo 18:24 and the chapter is concluded with their friendly parting, Exo 18:27.