Exodus 18:3

3 along with her two sons. One was named Gershom because he said, "I have been an immigrant living in a foreign land."

Exodus 18:3 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 18:3

And her two sons
Those also Jethro took along with him and his daughter:

of which the name of the one was Gershom;
which seems to be his firstborn, ( Exodus 2:22 ) , his name signifies a desolate stranger, as some, or, "there I was a stranger": the reason of which name follows agreeably thereunto:

for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land;
meaning, not the land of Egypt, where he was born, and had lived forty years; but in the land of Midian, where he was when this son of his was born; and which name was given him partly to keep up the memory of his flight to Midian, and partly to instruct his son, that Midian, though his native place, was not his proper country where he was to dwell, but another, even the land of Canaan.

Exodus 18:3 In-Context

1 Jethro, Midian's priest and Moses' father-in-law, heard about everything that God had done for Moses and for God's people Israel, how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.

2 Moses' father-in-law Jethro took with him Zipporah, Moses' wife whom he had sent away,

3 along with her two sons. One was named Gershom because he said, "I have been an immigrant living in a foreign land."

4 The other was named Eliezer because he said, "The God of my ancestors was my helper who rescued me from Pharaoh's sword."

5 Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought Moses' sons and wife back to him in the desert where he had set up camp at God's mountain.

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb ger sounds like Gershom.