Exodus 4:20

20 tulit Moses uxorem et filios suos et inposuit eos super asinum reversusque est in Aegyptum portans virgam Dei in manu sua

Exodus 4:20 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 4:20

And Moses took his wife, and his sons
Gershom and Eliezer; by which it appears that he intended to stay in Egypt, and that he believed that God would work deliverance by him: and set them upon an ass:
which though with us a mean creature, yet in those times and countries were rode upon by great personages; and these, as Aben Ezra says, were reckoned in Egypt more honourable than mules. It may be the singular is put for the plural, and that each of them was set upon an ass, with servants to take care of them: and he returned to the land of Egypt;
that is, he set forward to go thither; for before he got thither, various things are related which befell him: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand:
his shepherd's staff, so called, because God ordered him to take it; and besides, he had wrought signs and wonders by it already, and would do many more.

Exodus 4:20 In-Context

18 abiit Moses et reversus est ad Iethro cognatum suum dixitque ei vadam et revertar ad fratres meos in Aegyptum ut videam si adhuc vivunt cui ait Iethro vade in pace

19 dixit ergo Dominus ad Mosen in Madian vade revertere in Aegyptum mortui sunt omnes qui quaerebant animam tuam

20 tulit Moses uxorem et filios suos et inposuit eos super asinum reversusque est in Aegyptum portans virgam Dei in manu sua

21 dixitque ei Dominus revertenti in Aegyptum vide ut omnia ostenta quae posui in manu tua facias coram Pharaone ego indurabo cor eius et non dimittet populum

22 dicesque ad eum haec dicit Dominus filius meus primogenitus meus Israhel