Exodus 18:27

Summary

The verse closes the narrative of Moses and Jethro by reporting two consecutive actions: Moses sends off his father-in-law, and the father-in-law departs to his own land. The Hebrew names no one explicitly here — both figures are referred to only through the verbs and the possessive suffix "his."

Key words

• va-yeshallach ("and he sent off", H7971) — piel narrative verb; the piel stem intensifies the basic idea of "sending," suggesting a formal or deliberate send-off rather than a simple dismissal.
• choteno ("his father-in-law", H2859A) — qal participle in construct with a possessive suffix; functions as a noun ("the one who is father-in-law") governed by the preceding object marker.
• va-yelekh ("and he went", H1980, narrative form) — qal narrative verb continuing the sequence of action begun by the first verb; marks the second event in the chain.
• lo ("for himself", H9033) — preposition with pronominal suffix attached to the verb "he went," a reflexive-like construction emphasizing that the subject went "on his own way" or "for himself."
• artzo ("his land", H0776) — noun in construct with possessive suffix, indicating the destination of the journey, "his own land" without further geographic specification here.

What the text says

The verse is built as two short narrative clauses joined by the narrative vav (H9001), a construction typical of Biblical Hebrew storytelling that presents events in strict temporal sequence: first Moses acts, then the father-in-law acts. The subject of the first clause is explicit — Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — while the object of his action, "his father-in-law," is marked by the direct object marker 'et (H0853) and expressed through the construct participle choteno. Grammatically, this participle does not repeat a personal name; the identity of "his father-in-law" depends entirely on context established earlier in the chapter, since Exodus 18:27 itself contains no proper name for this person.

The second clause shifts the subject implicitly to the father-in-law, marked by the verb va-yelekh ("and he went"). The addition of lo ("for himself", H9033) attached to the verb is a Hebrew idiom that adds a reflexive nuance — the subject goes on his own way, for his own benefit or purpose — a nuance not always rendered explicitly in translation. The final phrase, 'el-artzo ("to his land"), marks the destination without naming it, mirroring the pattern of the whole verse: actions and relationships are expressed through structure and suffixes rather than repeated names.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew and Vulgate both omit any proper name in this verse, referring only to "his father-in-law" (cognatum suum in the Vulgate) and "he" for the return journey. The LXX (Swete text) also omits proper names, using τὸν ἑαυτοῦ γαμβρόν ("his own son-in-law/father-in-law") and αὐτοῦ ("his"). Some modern translations (BSB, SBLIBRE) insert "Jethro" explicitly as the subject of the second clause for clarity, though no such name appears in the Hebrew text of this verse itself.