Exodus Chapter 3

“Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian, etc.] Who was either the same with Reuel or Raguel, spoken of in the preceding chapter; or, as others think, a son of his, the father being now dead; seeing it was now forty years since Moses came into Midian, (<440730>Acts 7:30). Demetrius f101, an Heathen writer, expressly says that Jothor a son of Raguel, and Zipporah or Sepphora, as he calls her, was his daughter, whom Moses married: now this was the business Moses was chiefly concerned in during his stay in Midian; keeping the sheep of his father-in-law, in which great personages…”

“DIVINE APPEARANCE AND COMMISSION TO MOSES. (Exo. 3:1-22) Now Moses kept the flock--This employment he had entered on in furtherance of his matrimonial views (see on Exo 2:21), but it is probable he was continuing his service now on other terms like Jacob during the latter years of his stay with Laban (Gen 30:28). he led the flock to the backside of the desert--that is, on the west of the desert [GESENIUS], assuming Jethro's headquarters to have been at Dahab. The route by which Moses led his flock must have been west through the wide valley called by the Arabs, Wady-es-Zugherah [ROBINSON], which led into the…”

“Jethro his father-in-law - Or “brother-in-law.” The word in the Hebrew is a word signifying relative by marriage. When Moses arrived in Midian, Reuel was an elderly man Exodus 2:16; Exodus 40:0 years later (Exodus 2:23 note), Reuel’s son, Jethro, had probably succeeded him. The backside - i. e. “to the west of the district.” Among the Hebrews the East is before a man, the west behind him, the south and north on the right and left hand. Desert - Or wilderness, not a barren waste, but a district supplying pasturage. The district near Sherm, on the west of the gulf of Akabah, where Jethro may have resided, is…”

“Now Moses - The years of Moses's life are remarkably divided into three forties; the first forty he spent as a prince in Pharaoh's court, the second a shepherd in Midian, the third a king in Jeshurun. He had now finished his second forty when he received his commission to bring Israel out of Egypt. Sometimes it is long before God calls his servants out to that work which of old he designed them for. Moses was born to be Israel's deliverer, and yet not a word is said of it to him till he is eighty years of age. Even to Horeb - Horeb and Sinai were two tops of the same mountain. Exodus 3:2”

“3:1–4:28 This section presents Moses’ call to rescue the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. It is divided into two subsections, 3:1–4:17 and 4:18-28. The first deals with the call itself, while the second addresses the full implications of accepting that call. Moses was not presented with a mere vocational change; he faced an entire reorientation of his life. 3:1-10 In these verses, the stage is set for the reorientation of Moses’ life. 3:1 Sinai is the name usually used for the mountain where God later revealed himself in the covenant (see, e.g., 16:1; 19:1-2). Here and in 17:6 and 33:6 the Hebrew text uses the…”

“am 2513, bc 1491 kept: Psa 78:70-72; Amo 1:1, Amo 7:14, Amo 7:15; Mat 4:18, Mat 4:19; Luk 2:8 his father: Exo 2:16, Exo 2:21, Exo 18:1-6; Num 10:29; Jdg 4:11 the mountain: Exo 3:5, Exo 18:5, Exo 19:3, Exo 19:11, Exo 24:15-17; Kg1 19:8 Horeb: Exo 17:6; Deu 1:6, Deu 4:10; Psa 106:19; Mal 4:4 Exodus 3:2”

“When Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, he drove them on one occasion behind the desert, and came to the mountains of Horeb. רעה היה, lit. "he was feeding:" the participle expresses the continuance of the occupation. המּדבּר אחר does not mean ad interiora deserti (Jerome); but Moses drove the sheep from Jethro's home as far as Horeb, so that he passed through a desert with the flock before he reached the pasture land of Horeb. For "in this, the most elevated ground of the peninsula, you find the most fertile valleys, in which even fruit-trees grow. Water abounds in this district;…”