Then fled Moses at this saying
For hereby the thing was known to Pharaoh, being presently carried to court, who sought to kill him for it, ( Exodus 2:15 ) The Jews have a very fabulous story, that Moses was taken up upon it, and put in prison, and delivered into the hands of an executioner to be put to death; but that God wrought a miracle for him; he made his neck as hard as a pillar of marble, and the sword turned upon the neck of the executioner, and he died; and God sent Michael, the prince, in the likeness of the executioner, who took Moses by the hand, and led him out of Egypt, and left him at the borders of it, the distance of three days' journey F3 but the truth of the matter is, as Stephen relates, he fled directly, as soon as he heard the above words, for he knew his life was in the utmost danger:
and was a stranger in the land of Madian;
which, as Josephus says {d}, lay near the Red sea, and took its name from one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah. Philo the Jew F5 says, it was on the borders of Arabia; and according to Jerom F6, it was near Arnon and Areopolis, the ruins of which only were shown in his days; here he sojourned many years with Jethro the priest of that place:
where he begat two sons;
whose names were Gershom and Eliezer, having married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, ( Exodus 18:2-4 ) .