Exodus 18: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jethro, the priest of Midian and Moses' father-in-law, hears what God has done for Moses and Israel, and he brings Moses' wife Zipporah and her two sons to Moses at the mountain of God. Moses tells him everything the LORD did to Pharaoh and how he rescued Israel; Jethro blesses the LORD, says he now knows the LORD is greater than all gods, and brings offerings, and Aaron and the elders eat with him. The next day Jethro sees Moses judging the people alone from morning to evening and advises him to teach them God's rules and appoint capable men as judges over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens, keeping the great cases for himself. Moses does all that Jethro said, and then Jethro returns to his own land.

Claim by Claim

1. 18:1
   • Jethro was the priest of Midian.
   • Jethro was Moses' father-in-law.
   • Jethro heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people.
   • Jethro heard that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.
   • Israel was God's people.
2. 18:2
   • Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife.
   • Zipporah had been sent away beforehand; the text does not state who sent her or where she was sent.
3. 18:3
   • Jethro also took Zipporah's two sons.
   • The name of the one son was Gershom.
   • He said, 'I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.'
4. 18:4
   • The name of the other son was Eliezer.
   • He said, 'The God of my father was my help.'
   • He said that God delivered him from the sword of Pharaoh.
5. 18:5
   • Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came to Moses.
   • The sons and the wife came with him.
   • Moses was in the wilderness.
   • Moses was encamped at the mountain of God.
6. 18:6
   • He said to Moses, 'I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you.'
   • He said that Moses' wife and her two sons were with her.
7. 18:7
   • Moses went out to meet his father-in-law.
   • Moses bowed down.
   • Moses kissed him.
   • They asked each other about their welfare.
   • They went into the tent.
8. 18:8
   • Moses recounted to his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake.
   • Moses recounted all the hardship that had come upon them along the way.
   • Moses recounted that the LORD had delivered them.
9. 18:9
   • Jethro rejoiced over all the good that the LORD had done for Israel.
   • The LORD had delivered Israel from the hand of the Egyptians.
10. 18:10
    • Jethro said, 'Blessed be the LORD.'
    • Jethro said that the LORD had delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh.
    • Jethro said that the LORD had delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
11. 18:11
    • Jethro said, 'Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods.'
    • Jethro gave as the reason the matter in which the Egyptians acted arrogantly against Israel; the clause is incomplete and does not state plainly what happened in that matter.
12. 18:12
    • Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God.
    • Aaron came.
    • All the elders of Israel came.
    • They came to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.
13. 18:13
    • On the next day Moses sat to judge the people.
    • The people stood before Moses from the morning until the evening.
14. 18:14
    • Moses' father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people.
    • He asked what this thing was that Moses was doing for the people.
    • He asked why Moses sat alone.
    • He said that all the people stood before Moses from morning until evening.
15. 18:15
    • Moses said to his father-in-law that the people came to him to inquire of God.
16. 18:16
    • Moses said that when they have a matter, it comes to him.
    • Moses said that he judges between a man and his neighbor.
    • Moses said that he makes known the statutes of God and his laws.
17. 18:17
    • Moses' father-in-law said to him that the thing he was doing was not good.
18. 18:18
    • Jethro said that Moses would surely wear out.
    • Jethro said that the people with Moses would also wear out.
    • Jethro said the matter was too heavy for Moses.
    • Jethro said Moses was not able to do it alone.
19. 18:19
    • Jethro told Moses to listen to his voice.
    • Jethro said he would give Moses counsel.
    • Jethro said, 'May God be with you.'
    • Jethro told Moses to be for the people before God.
    • Jethro told Moses to bring the matters to God.
20. 18:20
    • Jethro told Moses to instruct them in the statutes and the laws.
    • Jethro told Moses to make known to them the way they must walk in.
    • Jethro told Moses to make known to them the work they must do.
21. 18:21
    • Jethro told Moses to select capable men out of all the people.
    • The men were to be fearers of God.
    • The men were to be men of truth.
    • The men were to be haters of dishonest gain.
    • Jethro told Moses to set them over the people as rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
22. 18:22
    • Jethro said they should judge the people at all times.
    • Jethro said every great matter they should bring to Moses.
    • Jethro said every small matter they should judge themselves.
    • Jethro said this would lighten the load on Moses.
    • Jethro said they would bear it with Moses.
23. 18:23
    • Jethro said that if Moses did this thing, and if God commanded him so, Moses would be able to endure.
    • Jethro said that all this people would also go to their place in peace.
24. 18:24
    • Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law.
    • Moses did all that his father-in-law had said.
25. 18:25
    • Moses chose capable men out of all Israel.
    • Moses made them heads over the people.
    • They were rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
26. 18:26
    • They judged the people at all times.
    • They brought the hard matters to Moses.
    • They judged every small matter themselves.
27. 18:27
    • Moses sent his father-in-law away.
    • His father-in-law went to his own land.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

18:1

"LORD" printed in capitals stands where the Hebrew has God's personal name, the four letters usually written YHWH and often said as "Yahweh." Jewish readers avoided pronouncing it and said "the Lord" instead, and English Bibles have followed that custom ever since. Where the text simply says "God" (Hebrew *elohim*, a general word), it is printed normally. Midian was a region of herders and traders east and south of the Sinai peninsula, in what is now north-west Arabia and southern Jordan; Moses had fled there from Egypt and married into Jethro's family. A "priest" here means a man who conducted sacrifices and rituals for his own people, Jethro is not an Israelite and serves no Israelite sanctuary.

18:2

The Hebrew phrase translated "sent her back" is the ordinary verb for sending someone away, and it is also the standard word used for a husband dismissing a wife. The text does not say which is meant, so it can be read either as Moses sending his family to safety with her father or as a formal separation. Zipporah was Jethro's daughter (Exodus 2:21).

18:3

Hebrew names carry meanings, and the story is pointing at one: *Gershom* sounds like the Hebrew words *ger sham*, "a stranger there." "A stranger in a land not my own" translates *ger*, a resident foreigner, someone living long-term among people not his own, with no clan to protect him and no share in the land.

18:4

*Eliezer* means "my God is help." "The God of my father" is the normal ancient way of naming a family's god by the ancestor who worshiped him, the point is inherited allegiance, not a description of the deity.

18:5

"The mountain of God" is the mountain called Sinai or Horeb elsewhere in Exodus, where Moses first met God at the burning bush and where Israel is about to camp. "The desert" (wilderness) means uncultivated grazing country, not necessarily bare sand.

18:7

Bowing to the ground and kissing were the standard courtesies between men on meeting, especially toward an older man or a superior; they carry no romantic sense. "Asked each other how they were doing" translates a formal exchange of greetings using the word *shalom*, asking after each other's welfare and safety.

18:8

"Travail" in 1611 English means grinding hardship or exhausting trouble. It has nothing to do with travel, and here nothing to do with childbirth.

18:9

"Power" and "hand" translate the same Hebrew word. "The hand of" someone means being in their grip or control, so "rescued from the hand of the Egyptians" means taken out of their power.

18:10

"Hand" is used throughout this chapter for power or control. To be delivered "out of the hand of the Egyptians" is to be pulled out of their grip, not out of anyone's literal hand.

18:11

The second half of this verse is broken in the Hebrew, the sentence stops short, literally something like "for in the matter in which they acted arrogantly, against them." Translators have to supply the missing words, so any English version is a guess at what was meant. "Greater than all gods" is how a person of the ancient world would rank deities: Jethro is comparing the LORD with the gods of Egypt, whose defeat he has just heard about.

18:12

A "burnt offering" was an animal burned whole on the altar, with no part eaten. The "other sacrifices" were the kind where the animal was killed at the altar and then eaten by the worshipers, so the shared meal that follows is part of the ritual, not a separate dinner. "In God's presence" means at the place of sacrifice. "Elders" were the heads of the families and clans, the men who spoke and decided for their kin, an office of standing, not simply old age.

18:13

Sitting was the posture of a judge, standing the posture of the people bringing a case; the seating itself signaled who held authority. There were no courts or written law codes here, so "judging" meant hearing disputes in person and announcing a decision.

18:15

"To ask about God's will" translates a phrase meaning to seek a ruling or an oracle from God on a matter no existing custom settles. It covers both legal disputes and questions put to God for a decision.

18:16

"Rules and laws" translate two Hebrew words often paired: *huqqim*, fixed decrees, and *torot*, instructions or rulings. Together they mean the whole body of binding direction given by God, some of it settled and some of it being decided case by case as Moses gives judgment.

18:18

The King James says "thou wilt surely wear away." In 1611 that meant you will wear yourself out, not that you will disappear.

18:19

"Stand for the people before God" means act as their representative, the one man who takes their questions to God and brings back the answer, rather than each person approaching God directly.

18:20

"The way they must walk in" is a Hebrew idiom: a person's "way" or "walk" is their conduct and manner of life, not a physical road.

18:21

"Money gained wrongly" translates a word for dishonest profit; in a chapter about judges the specific worry is bribes. The units of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens are a standard ancient way of organizing a population, borrowed from the way an army was mustered, the numbers name ranks of command rather than counting exact households.

18:22

"At all seasons" in the King James means at any time, on any occasion. It does not refer to seasons of the year.

18:23

"Go to their own place in peace" most likely means each man going home satisfied that his case has been settled, rather than waiting all day in the queue; some read it instead as the whole people reaching their destination in the land ahead. The Hebrew allows both.

18:26

"Causes" is the King James word for legal cases or disputes. The hard ones, meaning the cases with no clear precedent, still go up to Moses.

18:27

Jethro's "own land" is Midian, the territory he came from in verse 1. Unlike Israel, he is not traveling on with them.