Exodus 3:1

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian,.... Who was either the same with Reuel or Raguel, spoken of in the preceding chapter; or, as others think, a son of his,

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. Now Moses kept the flock.

EXODUS CHAPTER 3 Moses keeping Jethro’ s flock, cometh to mount Horeb, . There God appears to him in a burning bush, . Moses beholds it, . God calls to him out of the burning bush, ; cautions him what to do, ,6. God seeth their afflictions, ; promises them a happy deliverance, ; sends Moses to Pharaoh, . He desires to be excused because unworthy, . God encourages him, , and directs him what to say to the children of Israel, ,14; makes his name known to Moses, ; commands him to gather the elders of Israel, ; and what he was to say to them, ; likewise to Pharaoh, . Pharaoh’ s obstinacy, . God threatens the Egyptians, ; and tells Moses with what plenty the Israelites should depart, ,22. 1401 Jethro was either the same with Reuel, or his son, who, upon his father’ s death, succeeded into his office. See . To the backside of the desert, to its innermost parts, which were behind Jethro’ s habitation, and the former pastures, whither he went for fresh pastures. The mountain of God; so called, either as a high or eminent mountain; or from the vision of God here following; see ; or by anticipation, from God’ s glorious appearance there, and giving the law from thence, 19:3: see also . Horeb, called also Sinai, . Or Horeb was the name of the whole tract or row of mountains, and Sinai the name of that particular mountain where this vision happened, and the law was delivered. Or Horeb and Sinai were two several tops of the same mountain.

Exodus 3:1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, [even] to Horeb.Ver. 1. To the backside of the desert,] Here it was that Moses wrote the book of Genesis, and that of Job too, as some conceive, for the comfort of his poor oppressed countrymen in Egypt, that they might lean upon, and live by faith in, the promises made to the fathers. Alsted., Chron.

III.(1) Moses kept the flock.—The natural occupation of one who had thrown in his lot with the Midianites. Jethro, his father-in-law.—Rather, his relation by marriage. The word is one of very wide use, corresponding with the Latin affinis. It is even applied to a husband, as in Exodus 4:25. The supposition that it means “father-in-law” has led to the identification of Jethro with Reuel, which is very unlikely. He was more probably Reuel’s son, and Moses’s brother-in-law. His father having died, he had succeeded to his father’s position, and was at once priest and sheikh of the tribe. To the backside of the desert.—Heb., behind the desert—i.e., to the fertile tract which lay behind the sandy plain stretching from the Sinaitic range to the shore of the Elanitic gulf. The mountain of God—i.e., Sinai. See Exodus 18:5; Exodus 19:2-23, &c. Even Horeb.—Rather, towards Horeb, or Horeb way. Horeb seems to have been the name of the entire mountain region; Sinai of the group or mass known now as Jebel Musa.

CHAPTER III Moses keeping the flock of Jethro at Mount Horeb, the angel of the Lord appears to him in a burning bush, 1, 2. Astonished at the sight, he turns aside to examine it, 3, when God speaks to him out of the fire, and declares himself to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 4-6; announces his purpose of delivering the Israelites from their oppression, and of bringing them into the promised land, 7-9; commissions him to go to Pharaoh, and to be leader of the children of Israel from Egypt, 10. Moses excuses himself, 11; and God, to encourage him, promises him his protection, 12. Moses doubts whether the Israelites will credit him, 13, and God reveals to him his NAME, and informs him what he is to say to the people, 14-17, and instructs him and the elders of Israel to apply unto Pharaoh for permission to go three days' journey into the wilderness, to sacrifice unto the Lord, 18; foretells the obstinacy of the Egyptian king, and the miracles which he himself should work in the sight of the Egyptians, 19, 20; and promises that, on the departure of the Israelites, the Egyptians should be induced to furnish them with all necessaries for their journey, 21, 22. NOTES ON CHAP. III Verse 1. Jethro his father-in-law] Concerning Jethro, See Clarke on Exodus 2:18. Learned men are not agreed on the signification of the word חתן chothen, which we translate father-in-law, and which in Genesis 19:14, we translate son-in-law. It seems to be a general term for a relative by marriage, and the connection only in which it stands can determine its precise meaning. It is very possible that Reuel was now dead, it being forty years since Moses came to Midian; that Jethro was his son, and had succeeded him in his office of prince and priest of Midian; that Zipporah was the sister of Jethro; and that consequently the word חתן chothen should be translated brother-in-law in this place: as we learn from Genesis 34:9, Deuteronomy 7:3, Joshua 23:12, and other places, that it simply signifies to contract affinity by marriage. If this conjecture be right, we may well suppose that, Reuel being dead, Moses was continued by his brother-in-law Jethro in the same employment he had under his father. Mountain of God] Sometimes named Horeb, at other times Sinai. The mountain itself had two peaks; one was called Horeb, the other Sinai. Horeb was probably the primitive name of the mountain, which was afterwards called the mountain of God, because God appeared upon it to Moses; and Mount Sinai, סיני, from סנה seneh, a bush, because it was in a bush or bramble, in a flame of fire, that this appearance was made.

Exodus 3:1 to Exodus 4:17. Moses commissioned by Jehovah at Horeb to deliver His people. The dialogue between Jehovah and Moses, as in other cases (cf. Delitzsch on Genesis 12:1), must be pictured, not as one audible externally, but as giving expression,—in words which are naturally those of the narrators,—to Moses’ mental communings with God, through which he was gradually taught by Him that, in spite of the difficulties which he saw before him, he was nevertheless to be His appointed agent for accomplishing Israel’s deliverance (cf. the dialogue in Jeremiah 14-15). See further, on the sense in which God is to be understood as ‘speaking’ to a man, the Introduction, p. xlvii f.

Jethro his father-in-law - Or “brother-in-law.” The word in the Hebrew is a word signifying relative by marriage.

JEHOVAH IN THE BURNING BRAMBLE, Exodus 3:1-6. 1. Now Moses kept the flock — Rather, Was feeding the flock. The Hebrew word expresses a continued occupation.