Exodus 18:3

3 and Gershom and Eliezer, her two sons. (Moses had said, "I have been a foreigner in a strange land"; so he had named one son Gershom. ¹

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 the people of Israel when he led them out of Egypt.

2 So he came to Moses, bringing with him Moses' wife Zipporah, who had been left behind,

3 and Gershom and Eliezer, her two sons. (Moses had said, "I have been a foreigner in a strange land"; so he had named one son Gershom.

4 He had also said, "The God of my father helped me and saved me from being killed by the king of Egypt"; so he had named the other son Eliezer. )

5 Jethro came with Moses' wife and her two sons into the desert where Moses was camped at the holy mountain.

Cross References

• 1. 18.3Acts 7.29.

Footnotes

• [a]. gershom: [This name sounds like the Hebrew for "foreigner."]