Exodus 2:18

18 And they came to Reuel, their father, and he said, "{Why have you come so quickly} 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, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

17 And the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

18 And they came to Reuel, their father, and he said, "{Why have you come so quickly} today?"

19 And they said, "An Egyptian man delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he even drew [water] for us and watered the flock."

20 And he said to his daughters, "Where [is] he? {Why then} have you left the man? {Call him so that he can eat some food}."

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "why did you hasten coming"