Exodus 18:24

18:24 Moses listened to ¹  his father-in-law and did everything he had said.

Exodus 18:27

18:27 Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, ²  and so Jethro ³  went ⁴  to his own land. ⁵ 

Exodus 18:7

18:7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him; ⁶  they each asked about the other’s welfare, and then they went into the tent.

Exodus 3:1

3:1 Now Moses ⁷  was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert ⁸  and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. ⁹ 

Exodus 4:18

The Return of Moses

4:18 ¹⁰ So Moses went back ¹¹  to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Let me go, so that I may return ¹²  to my relatives ¹³  in Egypt and see ¹⁴  if they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

[18:24]  ¹ tn The idiom “listen to the voice of” means “obey, comply with, heed.”

[18:27]  ² tn The verb וַיְשַׁלַּח (vayshallakh) has the same root and same stem used in the passages calling for Pharaoh to “release” Israel. Here, in a peaceful and righteous relationship, Moses sent Jethro to his home.

[18:27]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jethro) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:27]  ⁴ tn The prepositional phrase included here Gesenius classifies as a pleonastic dativus ethicus to give special emphasis to the significance of the occurrence in question for a particular subject (GKC 381 §119.s).

[18:27]  ⁵ sn This chapter makes an excellent message on spiritual leadership of the people of God. Spiritually responsible people are to be selected to help in the work of the ministry (teaching, deciding cases, meeting needs), so that there will be peace, and so that leaders will not be exhausted. Probably capable people are more ready to do that than leaders are ready to relinquish control. But leaders have to be willing to take the risk, to entrust the task to others. Here Moses is the model of humility, receiving correction and counsel from Jethro. And Jethro is the ideal adviser, for he has no intention of remaining there to run the operation.

[18:7]  ³ 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).

[3:1]  ⁴ sn The vav (ו) disjunctive with the name “Moses” introduces a new and important starting point. The Lord’s dealing with Moses will fill the next two chapters.

[3:1]  ⁵ tn Or “west of the desert,” taking אַחַר (’akhar, “behind”) as the opposite of עַל־פְּנֵי (’al-pÿne, “on the face of, east of”; cf. Gen 16:12; 25:18).

[3:1]  ⁶ sn “Horeb” is another name for Mount Sinai. There is a good deal of foreshadowing in this verse, for later Moses would shepherd the people of Israel and lead them to Mount Sinai to receive the Law. See D. Skinner, “Some Major Themes of Exodus,” Mid-America Theological Journal 1 (1977): 31-42.

[4:18]  ⁵ sn This last section of the chapter reports Moses’ compliance with the commission. It has four parts: the decision to return (18-20), the instruction (21-23), the confrontation with Yahweh (24-26), and the presentation with Aaron (27-31).

[4:18]  ⁶ tn The two verbs form a verbal hendiadys, the second verb becoming adverbial in the translation: “and he went and he returned” becomes “and he went back.”

[4:18]  ⁷ tn There is a sequence here with the two cohortative forms: אֵלְכָה נָּא וְאָשׁוּבָה (’elÿkhah nna’ vÿ’ashuva) – “let me go in order that I may return.”

[4:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “brothers.”

[4:18]  ⁹ tn This verb is parallel to the preceding cohortative and so also expresses purpose: “let me go that I may return…and that I may see.”