Exodus 18

## Summary Exodus 18 narrates the visit of Jethro, priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, who brings Moses' wife and sons to him in the wilderness, hears of Yahweh's deeds, offers sacrifice, and then observes Moses judging the people alone. Jethro advises Moses to appoint a hierarchy of judges over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, reserving only "great matters" for himself, and Moses implements this advice before Jethro departs. ## Key words - *chọten* ("father-in-law of", H2859A) — a qal participle used repeatedly in construct form throughout the chapter (vv.1,2,5,6,7,8,9,12,14,15,17,24,27) to identify Jethro's relationship to Moses; its participial form (“the one doing”) reflects that in Hebrew the kinship term is verbal, literally "the one who made a marriage-bond." - *chuqqim* ("statutes", H2706G) and *torot* ("laws", H8451) (v.20) — both plural nouns without a definite verb of giving in the phrase; Moses is instructed to "make known" (*hoda'ta*, H3045, hiphil) these to the people, pairing two distinct terms for legal instruction. - *anshei-chayil* ("men of ability", H2428G) (vv.21,25) — construct phrase literally "men of strength/capacity," qualified further by *yir'ei 'Elohim* ("fearing God", H3373) and *son'ei vatza'* ("hating unjust gain", H8130+H1215), stacking four qualifying descriptions onto the same group of candidates. - *sar* ("official of", H8269), repeated four times in construct with *alaphim* ("thousands", H0505G), *me'ot* ("hundreds", H3967), *chamishim* ("fifties", H2572), and *asarot* ("tens", H6235) (vv.21,25) — a graded numerical series expressing a tiered chain of command. - *navol tibbol* ("certainly you will wear yourself out", H5034B) (v.18) — an infinitive absolute followed by the finite imperfect of the same root, a construction that intensifies the verb, here rendered by BSB as "surely... will wear yourselves out." ## What the text says The chapter is built almost entirely on narrative *vav*-forms (*va-yishma'*, *va-yavo*, *va-yomer*, etc.), the standard chain that moves the story forward action by action. Direct speech is introduced repeatedly with *va-yomer* ("and he said", H0559), structuring the chapter as a sequence of short speeches (Jethro's blessing in v.10, his diagnosis in vv.17-18, his proposal in vv.19-23) framed by narrative action. The etymological explanations for the sons' names in vv.3-4 use the particle *ki* ("for/because", H3588A) to introduce Moses' own reported speech justifying each name — *Gershom* linked to *ger* ("a sojourner", H1616) and *Eliezer* to the phrase "God of my father" as helper. These are folk-etymologies embedded directly in the narrative rather than authorial comment. Jethro's advice in vv.19-23 shifts from qal imperfects (future/ongoing: *techezeh*, "you will select," H2372) to sequential perfects (*ve-hizhartah*, "and you will warn," H2094B; *ve-hoda'ta*, "and you will make known," H3045) — a common Hebrew pattern where a string of sequential perfects continues a chain of instructions after an initial imperative or imperfect, giving the advice the shape of a structured, step-by-step plan rather than a single command. ## Differences between versions In v.11, the Hebrew *gadol Yahweh mikkol ha-Elohim* ("Yahweh is greater than all the *Elohim*/gods", H0430J) is rendered in the LXXSWETE as "μέγας παρὰ πάντας τοὺς θεούς" ("great beyond all the gods"), preserving the comparison; the Vulgate similarly reads "magnus... super omnes deos." The BSB gives "greater than all other gods," making explicit a plural rendering of *Elohim* here that differs from its usual singular translation "God" elsewhere in the same chapter (e.g., v.1, v.12), reflecting the same Hebrew word rendered differently according to grammatical number and context.