1 When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt;

2 Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back,

3 And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land:

4 And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh:

5 And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God:

6 And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.

Back in Exodus 4, when Moses had left the land of Midian to return to Egypt, we were told that Moses had taken his wife, Zipporah, and sons with him. It was during this sojourn that Moses had been reproved for having not yet circumcised his sons, and Zipporah had done the deed for him.

Today we learn from verse 2 that Moses apparently sent his wife and children back to Midian, though, and they had resided there with Zipporah’s father while Moses finished his work in Egypt. We are never given an explanation as to why Moses had sent them back. Perhaps they were in danger from Pharaoh after the curses Moses brought against Egypt. Perhaps Moses’s calling required his constant attention, and they would receive more care in Jethro’s home.

In any case, it may very well have been an extended absence of multiple years, but at last the family was all together again. At the end of this chapter we will hear that Jethro did not stay with the Israelite people in the wilderness, though. He came simply to return Moses’s family to him, observed the good that had been done to the Israelite people, offered some counsel to Moses, and then took his leave and went back to his own land. Being a priest, he must have had a work and a flock of his own to attend to, and he only lingered long enough to show Moses the ropes for leading the sheep in this region.