Exodus 2:11-22

Exodus 2:11 J. Moses's Flight to Midian. Here is interposed an incident from J, who uses the same word grow (contrast Exodus 2:10) of Moses reaching man's estate, interpreted in Acts 7:23 as 40 years of age (cf. 42 years in Jubilees). The Egyptian slain by Moses may have been some bully of a gangmaster (cf. Exodus 3:7). The well-intentioned but unjustifiable assumption of the authority to punish committed Moses to the career of a patriot (cf. Hebrews 11:24). But the incident was distorted by rumour, and not only aroused the king's anger, but set his own countrymen against him. Midian, whither he fled, is on some maps placed in the S.E. of the Sinai peninsula on the W. of the Gulf of Akaba. But the evidence of Ptolemy and the Arabic geographers, confirmed by Burton, locates it on the E. Its people, regarded in Genesis 25:1 J (cf. 1 Chronicles 2:46 f., 1 Chronicles 4:17) as distant blood-relations of Israel, had, at the time when this story took shape, apparently not yet come to be regarded as the bitterest of national foes (as in Numbers 31, perhaps based on Numbers 25:6 f.). The later view has led to the troops of Midian being taken as symbolising the enemies of the soul. The priest of Midian is introduced without explanation or apology; and in Exodus 2:18 he becomes the counsellor of Moses. It is possible that a real religious connexion existed between the Kenites (to whom the family of Jethro belonged, see Judges 4:11) and early Israel (cf. Exodus 2:18 *). Burckhardt found that the pasturing of flocks was still the exclusive duty of the unmarried girls (cf. Rachel in Genesis 29:9). M-' Neile renders Exodus 2:19 b, and he actually drew water for us, pointing out that Moses and Jacob drew water for women, while a slave (Genesis 24:19 f.) allowed a woman to draw for him. The tradition that Moses married a Midianitish woman would hardly have been preserved unless it had been widespread, for in Numbers 25:6 ff. (P) such an act is regarded as worthy of death. Zip-porah means bird, and is the feminine of Zippor, the name of the father of Balak. In Judges 7:25 the Midianitish chiefs are named Oreb (raven) and Zeeb (wolf). It has been suggested that this points to a primitive totemistic belief, betrayed when obsolete by the ancient names (Genesis 29:31 *). A family or clan is by this system linked as having the same totem animal.

Exodus 2:18. Reuel: the name, meaning God's friend, which, if original here, would have been given in Exodus 2:16, is oddly inserted by the editor from Numbers 10:29 *. Possibly, like some Sabæ an kings and priests, he had two names. The LXX has Jethro twice in Exodus 2:16. The AV Raguel reproduces the same Heb. differently, following LXX.

Exodus 2:22. a sojourner in a strange land. Driver notes that strange is no longer in English an equivalent of foreign, and gives instances. The word sojourner implies a popular play upon the first syllable of the word Gershom. In Judges 18:30 the priests of Dan claim descent from Moses through Gershom.