Exodus 2:18

18 When the girls returned to Reuel, their father, he asked, “Why are you back so soon today?”

Exodus 2:18 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 2:18

And when they came to Reuel their father
Or Ragouel, as the Septuagint; and so Artapanus ^F19 calls him. The Targum of Jonathan has it, their father's father; and so Aben Ezra says he was; and is the sense of others, induced thereto by ( Numbers 10:29 ) , but it does not follow from thence: he said,

how is it that you are come so soon today?
it being not only sooner than they were wont to come, but perhaps their business was done in so short a time; that it was marvellous to him that it could be done in it, so quick a dispatch had Moses made, and they through his assistance; and especially it might be more strange, if it was usual, as it seems it was, to be molested by the shepherds.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 Ut supra. (Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 434.)

Exodus 2:18 In-Context

16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters who came as usual to draw water and fill the water troughs for their father’s flocks.

17 But some other shepherds came and chased them away. So Moses jumped up and rescued the girls from the shepherds. Then he drew water for their flocks.

18 When the girls returned to Reuel, their father, he asked, “Why are you back so soon today?”

19 “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they answered. “And then he drew water for us and watered our flocks.”

20 “Then where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave him there? Invite him to come and eat with us.”