Exodus 18:4

4 forsooth the tother was called Eliezer, for Moses at his birth (had) said, (For the) God of my father is mine helper, and he delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.

Exodus 18:4 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 18:4

And the name of the other was Eliezer
Who seems to be his second son, and was that which was circumcised by Zipporah at the inn, and about which there was such a stir, ( Exodus 4:24-26 ) , and signifies "my God [is] help", or, his helper:

for the God of my father, [said he], was mine help, and delivered me
from the sword of Pharaoh;
who, on hearing that Moses had killed an Egyptian, was wroth with him, and sought to slay him; and perhaps drew his sword for that purpose, but was prevented: however, this, in all human probability, would have been the case, that he would have fallen by his sword either in a private or public manner, had it not been for the interposition of divine Providence, and therefore he gave this name to his child, to be a standing memorial of it.

Exodus 18:4 In-Context

2 Jethro took Zipporah, Moses? wife, whom Moses had sent again (whom Moses had sent back to him),
3 and his two sons, of which one was called Gershom, for the father at his birth (had) said, I was a comeling in an alien land (I was a newcomer in a foreign land),
4 forsooth the tother was called Eliezer, for Moses at his birth (had) said, (For the) God of my father is mine helper, and he delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.
5 Therefore Jethro, ally of Moses, came, and the sons of Moses and his wife came to Moses, into desert, where Jethro set tents beside the hill of God; (And so Jethro, Moses? father-in-law, came with Moses? wife and their sons, into the wilderness, where Moses had pitched the tents beside God's mountain;)
6 and he sent to Moses, and said, I Jethro, thine ally, come to thee, and thy wife, and thy two sons with her. (and he sent word to Moses, and said, I Jethro, thy father-in-law, have come to thee, with thy wife, and thy two sons with her.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.