Exodus 18:12

Summary

Jethro, described as the choten ("father-in-law of") Moses, takes a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. Aaron and all the elders of Israel then come to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law "before God." The verse narrates a sequence of two main actions using consecutive narrative verb forms.

Key words

• yiqqach ("he took", H3947J) — qal narrative form continuing the story sequence; the base sense is "take," here functioning as the acquiring/handling of the offering material.
• choten ("father-in-law of", H2859A) — a qal participle used as a title, in construct with Mosheh ("Moses", H4872); it appears twice in the verse, both times identifying Jethro by relation rather than by name alone in the second instance.
• 'olah ("a burnt offering", H5930A) — singular feminine noun, paired with zevachim ("sacrifices", H2077), a plural masculine noun, giving two distinct categories of offering.
• le'ekhol ("to eat", H0398) — qal infinitive expressing purpose: the elders come "to eat" bread, describing the goal of Aaron's and the elders' arrival.
• lifnei ha'elohim ("before the God", H6440G + H0430G) — construct noun penei ("face of") with the definite article on 'elohim, marking the location of the meal as "before the God," distinct from the earlier undefined le'lohim ("to God") in the offering clause.

What the text says

The verse is built from two narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs, vayyiqqach ("and he took") and vayyavo ("and he came"), which advance the action in sequence: first Jethro's offering, then the arrival of Aaron and the elders. The subject of the first clause, Yitro ("Jethro", H3503), is immediately re-identified by the construct phrase choten Mosheh ("father-in-law of Moses"), a designation repeated later in the verse when the elders come to eat "with the father-in-law of Moses" rather than with "Jethro" by name — the text consistently frames him through his relation to Moses rather than by name alone at that point.

The offering itself is split into two nouns, 'olah ("burnt offering") and zevachim ("sacrifices"), both directed le'lohim ("to God") without the definite article. By contrast, the meal shared afterward occurs lifnei ha'elohim ("before the God"), where the article is present. The infinitive le'ekhol lechem ("to eat bread") expresses the purpose of Aaron's and the elders' coming, describing a shared meal following the sacrificial act, without further elaboration on ritual procedure.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the verb yiqqach ("he took") as obtulit ("he offered"), shifting the semantic focus from "taking" the offering materials to the act of formally "offering" them, a nuance not present in the Hebrew verb itself. The LXX instead uses elaben ("he took/received"), which stays closer to the base sense of laqach. The LXX also adds the idea of eating "together" (symphagein) where the Hebrew infinitive le'ekhol simply states "to eat," without the additional "together" component.