Exodus 2:18

Exo 2:18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How [is it that] ye are come so soon to day?

Ver. 18. To Reuel their father.] Indeed, their grandfather. {Num 10:29} Old men are usually about home, and can do little else but see to things, and advise.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exo 2:18. Reuel — Or Raguel (see Num 10:29) is thought by some to have been their grandfather, and father of Hobab or Jethro, their immediate father.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:18-20 The father of seven daughters was not about to leave a generous and courageous male—excellent husband material—unaccounted for! We see here the well-known hospitality (see also Gen 18:1-8) that characterizes the residents of this region to this day.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, grandfather.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 18. Reuel, their father] In Nu 10:29 this person is called Raguel, but the Hebrew is the same in both places. The reason of this difference is that the ע ain in רעואל is sometimes used merely as vowel, sometimes as g, ng, and gn, and this is occasioned by the difficulty of the sound, which scarcely any European organs can enunciate. As pronounced by the Arabs it strongly resembles the first effort made by the throat in gargling, or as Meninski says, Est vox vituli matrem vocantis, "It is like the sound made by a calf in seeking its dam." Raguel is the worst method of pronouncing it; Re-u-el, the first syllable strongly accented, is nearer to the true sound. A proper uniformity in pronouncing the same word wherever it may occur, either in the Old or New Testament, is greatly to be desired. The person in question appears to have several names. Here he is called Reuel; in Nu 10:29, Raguel; in Ex 3:1, Jethor; in Jdg 4:11, Hobab; and in Jdg 1:16 he is called קיני Keyni, which in Exodus 4 we translate Kenite. Some suppose that Re-u-el was father to Hobab, who was also called Jethro. This is the most likely; See Clarke on Ex 3:1.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Reuel] Heb. רעואל, the ‘friend’ or ‘companion of God’ (Sayce, EHH. p. 163 ‘Shepherd of God’: but why should the name be Assyrian?). (AV. Raguel, where the g comes from the LXX., and is one of the many instances of ע being expressed in that version by g, as Gaza, Gomorrah, Gotholiah, &c.: see the writer’s Notes on Samuel, on 1Sa_16:20.) The name occurs also in Edom (Gen_36:4; Gen_36:10) and Israel (1Ch_9:8). Here it occasions a difficulty. In Exo_3:1, Exo_4:18, and ch. 18, Moses’ father-in-law is called Jethro1[102]; in Num_10:29, Jdg_4:11 (RVm.) he is called Hobab (RV. ‘brother-in-law,’ cf. Exo_1:16, is a doubtful rend., adopted entirely from harmonistic motives): here, if Reuel is correct, he would have had a third name. Perhaps, however, the word here is a gloss, due to a misconception of Num_10:29 (so Ryssel in Di. al.): had the name been original, it would naturally have been given in v. 16 (where the ‘priest of Midian’ is first mentioned). Still, it is strange, if a name had to be found, that it was taken from the remote Num_10:29, rather than from Exo_3:1. ‘Tradition,’ says Prof. Sayce (EHH. p. 163), ‘has handed down more than one name for the high-priest of Midian’; perhaps indeed, as Nielsen (Die altarab. Mondreligion u. die Mos. Ueberlief., 1904, p. 131) has suggested, the variation is due to the fact that, like many of the Sabaean kings, and some of the Sabaean priests (Mordtmann, Beiträge zur Z. für Assyr. 1897, p. 75 f.), he had actually two names. There seem also to have been different traditions about his nationality; for Hobab,—whether he were really the same as Jethro, or Jethro’s son,—though he is a Midianite in Num_Exo_10:29, is a Kenite in Jdg_4:11 (cf. Exo_1:16).

[102] Or, in Exo_4:18, Jether. The ô, or, as it might be vocalized, u, is doubtless the mark of the Arab. nomin., as in the numerous Arab. names (Zaidu, Sa‘du, etc.) of the Sinaitic inscriptions (p. 179) of 2–3d. cent. a.d.: cf. the Arabian Gashmu, Neh_6:6 (called Geshem in Exo_6:1-2). The name Yether (meaning apparently excellence) recurs as that of several Israelites. The corresponding Arab. form Watr (or Witr) occurs also several times in the Sabaean inscriptions of S. Arabia, both as a principal name (CIS. iv. Nos. 10, 70, 83), and as a cognomen (Nos. 1, 37; cf. pp. 22, 77); and Witru in CIS. 11. ii. 3156 (from Sinai), and RES. No. 53 (from Ḥauran); οὔιθρος, Waddington, Inscr. Grecques de la Syrie, 2537 h.

drew] actually drew: the Heb. idiom, by accentuating the fact, ‘expresses the surprise which they had felt at the kindness of his action’ (McNeile).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And when they came to Reuel their father,.... Or Ragouel, as the Septuagint; and so Artapanus (s) calls him. The Targum of Jonathan has it, their father's father; and so Aben Ezra says he was; and is the sense of others, induced thereto by Num 10:29, but it does not follow from thence: he said:

how is it that you are come so soon today? it being not only sooner than they were wont to come, but perhaps their business was done in so short a time; that it was marvellous to him that it could be done in it, so quick a dispatch had Moses made, and they through his assistance; and especially it might be more strange, if it was usual, as it seems it was, to be molested by the shepherds.

(s) Ut supra. (Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 434.)

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Reuel - Or, as in Num 10:29, “Raguel.” The name means “friend of God.” It appears to have been not uncommon among Hebrews and Edomites; e. g. Gen 36:4, Gen 36:10. If Reuel be identified with Jethro, a point open to grave objection (see Exo 3:1), then Reuel was his proper name, and Jether or Jethro, which means “excellency,” was his official designation.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Raguel. He had two names, being also called Jethro, as appears from the first verse of the following chapter. (Challoner) --- He is also called Hobab and Ceni. (Numbers x. 2; Judges i. 16.) Perhaps Raguel was father of Jethro. (Drusius.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Their father; either,

1. Strictly, and then he is the same who elsewhere is called Jethro, Exo 3:1; Exo 18 oft times; and, as some think, Hobab, Jdg 4:11. Or,

2. Largely, i.e. their grandfather, for such are oft called fathers, as Gen 31:43; 2Ki 14:3; 16:2; 18:3; so he was the father of Jethro, or Hobab, Num 10:29.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Reu-El — Friend of God. The name implies that he worshipped the God of Abraham his father. Midian was the son of Abraham by Keturah.

Gen_25:2. On the relationship of Reuel, Jethro, and Hobab, see Concluding Note.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Reuel their father. Reuel is called "Raguel" in Num_10:29, but the Hebrew spelling is the same in both places. The word means "friend of God," and implies monotheisim. Compare Exo_18:9-12.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Reul or Raguel (see Num. x, 29,) seems to have been their grandfather and father of Hobab or Jethro, their immediate father.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Reuel

Called Raguel. Num 10:29.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Why did you leave the man?

This question is a mild rebuke to the daughters for not inviting Moses into their home according to the normal hospitality of that culture. AT: "You should not have left this man at the well!" (See: Rhetorical Question)

translationWords

Jethro

Egypt

shepherd

flocks

call

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.