People of the Bible

Jethro

A Midianite priest who took in a fugitive, and later told the man who had seen the sea open that he was doing his job wrong.

Jethro is a priest of Midian with seven daughters and a well that other shepherds keep taking. When a stranger drives them off and waters the flock, Jethro asks why the man has been left standing outside and gives him a home, a wife and forty years of work. Much later he comes out to the camp at the mountain bringing Moses’ wife and sons, hears the whole account, and says now I know the LORD is greater than all gods. The next morning he watches Moses judge from dawn to dusk and tells him plainly that it is not good.

Where it appearsExodus 2 to 4 · Exodus 18

Exodus

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The movements, in the order the text gives them.

The story of Jethro

01
Exodus 2:16-22
Where is he, why did you leave him
His daughters come home early because a stranger defended them. His first reaction is not suspicion but hospitality, and Moses stays.
02
Exodus 4:18-20
Go in peace
Moses asks leave to return to Egypt and does not explain about the bush. Jethro does not press him and sends him off with a blessing.
03
Exodus 18:1-12
Now I know
He arrives at the mountain with Zipporah and the boys, hears everything the LORD had done, rejoices, and offers sacrifice while Aaron and the elders eat bread with him.
04
Exodus 18:13-27
The thing that you do is not good
He watches one man absorb an entire nation’s disputes and says he will wear away, and the people with him. Then he proposes the structure, and leaves for his own country.

Why it matters

Jethro is an outsider who is right. He is not an Israelite, he is a priest of another people, and the administrative structure of the nation, the division into thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens, is his idea. Scripture records that Moses listened to his father in law and did everything he said. It is one of the few places where the man who spoke with God face to face takes instruction from someone else.

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