Exodus 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

When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt; Jethro ... came ...

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 . 2. Because the laws of sacrifices were given before his coming, as appears from . 3. Because the execution of this counsel here given about the choice of magistrates, , is related after the Israelites’ departure from Sinai, , &c. And therefore here is a transposal in this history, which is also frequent in other places of Holy Scripture.

Exodus 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 mount of God:Ver. 5. At the mount of God.] Horeb; whither they were removed from Rephidim, though the remove be not mentioned.

(5) Where he encamped at the mount of God.—It is quite possible that “the mount of God” may be here used, in a broad sense, of the entire Sinaitic mountain-region, as “wilderness” is just before used in the broad sense of the infertile region between Egypt and Palestine. Or the movement described in Exodus 19:1-2 may have taken place before Jethro’s arrival, though not related until after it. We must bear in mind that Exodus was probably composed in detached portions, and arranged afterwards. The present chapter has every appearance of being one such detached portion.

Verse 5. Jethro - came with his sons] There are several reasons to induce us to believe that the fact related here is out of its due chronological order, and that Jethro did not come to Moses till the beginning of the second year of the exodus, (see Numbers 10:11), some time after the tabernacle had been erected, and the Hebrew commonwealth established, both in things civil and ecclesiastical. This opinion is founded on the following reasons: - 1. On this verse, where it is said that Jethro came to Moses while he was encamped at the mount of God. Now it appears, from Exodus 19:1-2, 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 Exodus 16:1. 2. Moses, in Deuteronomy 1:6; Deuteronomy 1:9; Deuteronomy 1:10; Deuteronomy 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 Numbers 10:11; Numbers 10:29, c., 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 travelled through the wilderness. It therefore seems necessary that the transaction recorded in this chapter should be inserted Num. x. between the 10th and 11th verses. Numbers 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 AEthiopian woman Zipporah whom he had married, (see Numbers 12:1, c.); 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, (Exodus 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.

5. into the wilderness, &c.] The ‘mount of God’ (Exodus 3:1) is Horeb, the ‘wilderness’ consequently can be only the ‘wilderness of Sinai,’ ‘in font of the mount,’ which, however, the Israelites do not reach till Exodus 19:1-2, and which (if Rephidim be in W. Feiran, and Jebel Mûsâ be Sinai) was at least 24 miles beyond Rephidim (see on Exodus 19:1 b, 2). The passage affords a strong argument for the supposition (see above) that Exodus 18 stood originally at a later point in the narrative.

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.

5. Where he encamped at the mount of God — This most naturally means that Jethro’s visit occurred after the Israelites had reached Sinai and encamped before the mountain.