Exodus 2:18
in Exodus 2When the daughters returned to their father Reuel, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to-day?
KJV
And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
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This verse in Exodus 2
Commentary
4 notes on this verseReuel, their father - In Num 10:29 this person is called Raguel, but the Hebrew is the same in both places. The reason of this difference is that the ע ain in רעואל is sometimes used merely as vowel, sometimes as g, ng, and gn, and this is occasioned by the difficulty of the sound, which scarcely any European organs can enunciate.
This site's exposition
when they came to Reuel their father
on Exodus 2:18-20
The daughters run home and tell their father, as Rebekah did at Genesis 24:28 and Rachel at Genesis 29:12, and the stranger is called in to eat bread. They report him as an Egyptian, which is what his dress and his speech made him to a Midianite eye. The priest is Reuel here and Jethro at Exodus 3:1 and 18:1, and Numbers 10:29 names Raguel as the father of Hobab, so some read Reuel as the clan head or grandfather while others read the two names as belonging to one man.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
And when they came to Reuel their father,.... Or Ragouel, as the Septuagint; and so Artapanus (s) calls him.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Reuel - Or, as in Num 10:29, “Raguel.” The name means “friend of God.” It appears to have been not uncommon among Hebrews and Edomites; e. g. Gen 36:4, Gen 36:10. If Reuel be identified with Jethro, a point open to grave objection (see Exo 3:1), then Reuel was his proper name, and Jether or Jethro, which means “excellency,” was his official designation.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַתָּבֹ֕אנָה | vatavonah | and they went | H935 → | 2568 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| רְעוּאֵ֖ל | reuel | Reuel | H7467 → | |
| אֲבִיהֶ֑ן | ʾavihen | father their | H1 → | 1212 times |
| וַיֹּ֕אמֶר | vaiyomer | and he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| מַדּ֛וּעַ | madua' | why? | H4069 → | 72 times |
| מִהַרְתֶּ֥ן | miharten | did you hurry | H4116 → | 68 times |
| בֹּ֖א | bo' | to come | H935 → | 2568 times |
| הַיּֽוֹם׃ | haiyom | this day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
וַתָּבֹ֕אנָהand they went
vatavonahH935 →2568 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
רְעוּאֵ֖לReuel
reuelH7467 →
אֲבִיהֶ֑ןfather their
ʾavihenH1 →1212 times
וַיֹּ֕אמֶרand he said
vaiyomerH559 →5305 times
מַדּ֛וּעַwhy?
madua'H4069 →72 times
מִהַרְתֶּ֥ןdid you hurry
mihartenH4116 →68 times
בֹּ֖אto come
bo'H935 →2568 times
הַיּֽוֹם׃this day
haiyomH3117 →2304 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Numbers 10:29Then Moses said to Hobab, the son of Moses’ father-in-law Reuel the Midianite, “We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said: ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us,…
it leads to
- Exodus 3:1
Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Genesis 12:7
Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
- Judges 4:11
Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent by the great tree of Zaanannim, which was near Kedesh.
- Judges 1:16
Now the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up with the men of Judah from the City of Palms to the Wilderness of Judah in the Negev near Arad. They went to live…
- Genesis 32:12
But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”
- Exodus 3:1
Through
Exodus 3:1Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
it leads to
- 1 Kings 19:8
So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
- Exodus 17:6
Behold, I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. And when you strike the rock, water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in…
- Psalms 78:70–72
He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;
- 1 Kings 19:8
Where this verse is studied
About Exodus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).