Exodus 18:3

3 along with her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom (because Moses had said, "I have been a stranger in a foreign land")^{[a] [b]}

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

2 Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken in Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back,

3 along with her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom (because Moses had said, "I have been a stranger in a foreign land")

4 and the other Eliezer (because [he had said,] "The God of my father was my helper and delivered me from Pharaoh's sword").

5 Moses' father-in-law Jethro, along with Moses' wife and sons, came to him in the wilderness where he was camped at the mountain of God.

Footnotes

• [a]. The name Gershom sounds like Hb "a stranger there"
• [b]. Ex 2:22