Keluaran 18:27

18:27 Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, ¹  and so Jethro ²  went ³  to his own land. ⁴ 

Keluaran 18:1

The Advice of Jethro

18:1 ⁵ Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard about all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, that ⁶  the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. ⁷ 

1 Samuel 29:6-11

29:6 So Achish summoned David and said to him, “As surely as the Lord lives, you are an honest man, and I am glad to have you ⁸  serving ⁹  with me in the army. ¹⁰  I have found no fault with you from the day that you first came to me until the present time. But in the opinion ¹¹  of the leaders, you are not reliable. ¹²  29:7 So turn and leave ¹³  in peace. You must not do anything that the leaders of the Philistines consider improper!” ¹⁴ 

29:8 But David said to Achish, “What have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day that I first came into your presence until the present time, that I shouldn’t go and fight the enemies of my lord the king?” 29:9 Achish replied to David, “I am convinced that you are as reliable ¹⁵  as the angel of God! However, the leaders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us in the battle.’ 29:10 So get up early in the morning along with the servants of your lord who have come with you. ¹⁶  When you get up early in the morning, as soon as it is light enough to see, leave.” ¹⁷ 

29:11 So David and his men got up early in the morning to return ¹⁸  to the land of the Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

Mazmur 105:14-15

105:14 He let no one oppress them;

he disciplined kings for their sake,

105:15 saying, ¹⁹  “Don’t touch my chosen ²⁰  ones!

Don’t harm my prophets!”

Amsal 21:1

21:1 The king’s heart ²¹  is in the hand ²²  of the Lord like channels of water; ²³ 

he turns it wherever he wants.

[18:27]  ¹ tn The verb וַיְשַׁלַּח (vayshallakh) has the same root and same stem used in the passages calling for Pharaoh to “release” Israel. Here, in a peaceful and righteous relationship, Moses sent Jethro to his home.

[18:27]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jethro) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:27]  ³ tn The prepositional phrase included here Gesenius classifies as a pleonastic dativus ethicus to give special emphasis to the significance of the occurrence in question for a particular subject (GKC 381 §119.s).

[18:27]  ⁴ sn This chapter makes an excellent message on spiritual leadership of the people of God. Spiritually responsible people are to be selected to help in the work of the ministry (teaching, deciding cases, meeting needs), so that there will be peace, and so that leaders will not be exhausted. Probably capable people are more ready to do that than leaders are ready to relinquish control. But leaders have to be willing to take the risk, to entrust the task to others. Here Moses is the model of humility, receiving correction and counsel from Jethro. And Jethro is the ideal adviser, for he has no intention of remaining there to run the operation.

[18:1]  ⁵ sn This chapter forms the transition to the Law. There has been the deliverance, the testing passages, the provision in the wilderness, and the warfare. Any God who can do all this for his people deserves their allegiance. In chap. 18 the Lawgiver is giving advice, using laws and rulings, but then he is given advice to organize the elders to assist. Thus, when the Law is fully revealed, a system will be in place to administer it. The point of the passage is that a great leader humbly accepts advice from other godly believers to delegate responsibility. He does not try to do it all himself; God does not want one individual to do it all. The chapter has three parts: vv. 1-12 tell how Jethro heard and came and worshiped and blessed; vv. 13-23 have the advice of Jethro, and then vv. 24-27 tell how Moses implemented the plan and Jethro went home. See further E. J. Runions, “Exodus Motifs in 1 Samuel 7 and 8,” EvQ 52 (1980): 130-31; and also see for another idea T. C. Butler, “An Anti-Moses Tradition,” JSOT 12 (1979): 9-15.

[18:1]  ⁶ tn This clause beginning with כִּי (ki) answers the question of what Jethro had heard; it provides a second, explanatory noun clause that is the object of the verb – “he heard (1) all that God had done… (2) that he had brought….” See R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 81, §490.

[18:1]  ⁷ sn This is an important report that Jethro has heard, for the claim of God that he brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt will be the foundation of the covenant stipulations (Exod 20).

[29:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “it is good in my eyes.” Cf. v. 7.

[29:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “your going forth and your coming in.” The expression is a merism.

[29:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “camp.”

[29:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “eyes.”

[29:6]  ¹² tn Heb “good.”

[29:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “go.”

[29:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and you must not do evil in the eyes of the leaders of the Philistines.”

[29:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I know that you are good in my eyes.”

[29:10]  ¹⁶ tc The LXX and a couple of Old Latin mss include here the following words: “and you shall go to the place that I have appointed you. Don’t place an evil thing in your heart, for you are good before me.”

[29:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “when you get up early in the morning and you have light, go.”

[29:11]  ¹⁸ tc Heb “to go in the morning to return.” With the exception of Origen and the Lucianic recension, the Old Greek tradition lacks the phrase “in the morning.” The Syriac Peshitta also omits it.

[105:15]  ¹⁹ tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[105:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “anointed.”

[21:1]  ²¹ sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.

[21:1]  ²² sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

[21:1]  ²³ tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”

[21:1]  sn The farmer channels irrigation ditches where he wants them, where they will do the most good; so does the Lord with the king. No king is supreme; the Lord rules.