Exodus 2:22

Exo 2:22 And she bare [him] a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

Ver. 22. I have been a stranger.] So we are all, while here. Our own place is paradise; haste to it.

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 2:22. Gershom — That is, A stranger there. Now this settlement of Moses in Midian was designed by Providence to shelter him for the present; God will find hiding-places for his people in the day of their distress. It was also designed to prepare him for the services he was to be called to. His manner of life in Midian, where he kept the flock of his father-in-law, would inure him to hardship and fatigue, and to contemplation and devotion. Egypt accomplished him for a scholar, a gentleman, a statesman, a soldier; all which accomplishments would be afterward of use to him; but yet lacked he one thing, in which the court of Egypt could not befriend him. He who was to do all by divine revelation, must know what it was to live a life of communion with God, and in this he would be greatly furthered by the retirement of a shepherd’s life in Midian. By the former he was prepared to rule in Jeshurun, but by the latter he was prepared to converse with God in mount Horeb. Those that know what it is to be alone with God, are acquainted with better delights than ever Moses tasted in the court of Pharaoh.

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

Gershom. An Egyptian etymology has been assigned to this name ("Speaker"s Commentary," vol. 1., p. 488); but Moses in the text clearly indicates that his own intention was to give his child a name significant in Hebrew. "He called his name Gershom, for he said, a stranger (ger) have I been," etc. The only question is, what the second element of the name, shom, means. This appears to be correctly explained by Kalisch and others as equivalent to sham "there so that the entire word would mean "(I was) a stranger therei.e. in the country where this son was born to me.

Gershom.

1. The good man in this world is often lonely at heart.

1. When violence reigns unchecked.

2. When God"s cause is in a depressed condition.

3. When repulsed in efforts to do good.

4. When severed from scenes of former labour.

5. When his outward lot is uncongenial.

6. When deprived of suitable companionships, and when he can find few to sympathise with him.

2. God sends to the good man alleviations of his loneliness. We may hope that Zipporah, if not without faults, formed a kind and helpful wife to Moses. Then, sons were born to him the first, the Gershom of this text.

These were consolations. A wife"s affection, the prattle and innocence of children have sweetened the lot of many all exile. Bunyan and his blind daughter. J.O.

HOMILIES BY H.T. ROBJOHNS Ver. 22. Life and its moods.

called his name Gershom," etc., (Exo_2:22) compared with the name of the other was Eliezer," etc.. (Exo_18:4) Note the isolation and misery of the earlier time, and the mercy of the later each begetting its own tone and mood of mind; and further, the desirability of living above the mood of the passing day. Rev. O. Kingsley says ("Life," 1:82): "Let us watch against tones. They are unsafe things. The tone of a man or woman"s mind ought to be that of thoughtful reverence and love; but neither joy or sorrow, or activity or passiveness, or any other animal tone, ought to be habitual," etc. R.

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

Verse 22. Called his name Gershom] Literally, a stranger; the reason of which Moses immediately adds, for I have been an ALIEN in a strange land.

The Vulgate, the Septuagint, as it stands in the Complutensian Polyglot, and in several MSS., the Syriac, the Coptic, and the Arabic, add the following words to this verse: And the name of the second he called Eliezer, for the God of my father has been my help, and delivered me from the hand of Pharaoh. These words are found in Ex 18:4, but they are certainly necessary here, for it is very likely that these two sons were born within a short space of each other; for in Ex 4:20, it is said, Moses took his wife and his SONS, by which it is plain that he had both Gershom and Eliezer at that time. Houbigant introduces this addition in his Latin version, and contends that this is its most proper place. Notwithstanding the authority of the above versions, the clause is found in no copy, printed or MS., of the Hebrew text.

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

(22) Gershom.—Almost certainly from ger, “a stranger,” and shâm, “there.” So Jerome, who translates it advena ibi. (Comp. Josephus and the LXX., who write the name Gersam.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. Gershom] The name might conceivably be derived from גרש, and mean expulsion. The writer, however, thinking, as in v. 10, of an assonance, rather than of an etymology, explains it as though it were equivalent to gêr shâm, ‘a sojourner there.’ It was through a descendant of this Gershom that the priests of Dan claimed in later days descent from Moses (Jdg_18:30).

in a foreign land] This was the meaning of ‘strange’ (from Lat. extraneus), when the AV. was made in 1611; and the old rendering has been often retained in RV. But ‘strange’ has changed its meaning now, and is no longer a sufficiently clear and unambiguous rendering of the Heb. For other cases of ‘strange’ in the same now obsolete sense of ‘foreign,’ see Exo_21:8 ‘a strange people’; 1Ki_11:1; 1Ki_11:8, Ezr_10:2; Ezr_10:10 al. ‘strange women or wives’; Gen_35:2; Gen_35:4, Psa_81:9 b al. ‘strange gods’; Psa_137:4 ‘a strange land,’ as here. Cf. the passage in the Homilies (cited by Aldis Wright), which speaks of ‘a certain strange philosopher,’ meaning, not an eccentric one, but a foreign one. ‘Stranger’ also often occurs in EVV. in the same sense (see on ch. Exo_12:43). Comp. the writer’s note on Mal_2:11 in the Century Bible; and see also DB. s.v.

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 she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom,.... Which signifies a "desolate stranger"; partly on his own account, he being in a foreign country, a stranger and sojourner; but not by way of complaint, but rather of thankfulness to God for providing so well for him in it; and partly on his son's account, that when he came to years of maturity and knowledge, he might learn, and in which Moses no doubt instructed him, that he was not to look upon Midian as his proper country, but that he was to be heir of the land of Canaan, and which he might be reminded of by his name:

for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land; so Midian was to him, who was born in Egypt, and being an Hebrew, was entitled to the land of Canaan; this looks as if he had been at this time some years in Midian.

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

Gershom - The first syllable “Ger” is common to Hebrew and Egyptian, and means “sojourner.” The second syllable “Shom” answers exactly to the Coptic “Shemmo,” which means “a foreign or strange land.”

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

CHAPTER II.

Gersam, or Gershom. This name signifies, a stranger there: as Eliezer signifies the help of God. (Challoner) --- And she, &c., is wanting both in Hebrew and Chaldean, but found in the Complutensian edition of the Septuagint. It occurs (chap. xviii. 4,) and we might naturally expect to find it in this place. (Calmet)

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).

Gershom - That is, A stranger there. Now this settlement of Moses in Midian was designed by Providence. To shelter him for the present; God will find hiding places for his people in the day of their distress. It was also designed to prepare him for the services he was farther designed to. His manner of life in Midian, where he kept the flock of his father-in-law would be of use to him, to inure him to hardship and poverty; and to inure him to contemplation and devotion. Egypt accomplished him for a scholar, a gentleman, a statesman, a soldier, all which accomplishments would be afterwards of use to him; but yet lacketh he one thing, in which the court of Egypt could not befriend him. He that was to do all by divine Revelation must know, what it was to live a life of communion with God, and in this he would be greatly furthered by the retirement of a shepherd's life in Midian. By the former he was prepared to rule in Jeshurun, but by the latter he was prepared to converse with God in Mount Horeb. Those that know what it is to be alone with God, are acquainted with better delights than ever Moses tasted in the court of Pharaoh.

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