Exodus 18:6

Summary

Jethro sends word to Moses announcing his own arrival together with Moses's wife and her two sons. The message is framed as direct speech in which Jethro identifies himself by name and relationship before stating that he is coming.

Key words

• chotenkha ("your father-in-law", H2859A) — a qal participle construct with a pronominal suffix, literally "father-in-law-of-you," identifying Jethro's relationship to Moses before his name is even given.
• ba' ("[is] coming", H0935G) — qal perfect. Though morphologically a completed-action form, here it functions as a present/progressive statement ("I am coming"), a common use of the perfect for self-announced action in direct speech.
• ishtekha ("your wife", H0802H) — feminine singular construct noun with suffix, "wife-of-you," grammatically governing the phrase that follows.
• banei-ha ("her sons", H1121A) — masculine plural construct noun with a feminine suffix, "sons-of-her." The suffix -ha ("her") ties the sons back to the wife just mentioned, not to Moses.
• imma-h ("with her", H5973A) — preposition with feminine suffix, again referring back to the wife, indicating she and the sons travel together.

What the text says

The verse is built as a short quoted message introduced by va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) with the vav leading directly into direct speech. Jethro's self-identification runs: ani ("I", H0589) + chotenkha ("your father-in-law") + Yitro ("Jethro") — pronoun, relational noun, and proper name stacked before the verb ba', so the speaker establishes who he is before stating what he is doing. The perfect form ba' used for a present action is a feature of Hebrew narrative dialogue, where a perfect can express an act framed as already decided or underway from the speaker's standpoint.

The list of companions — ishtekha ("your wife"), shenei banei-ha ("the two sons of her"), imma-h ("with her") — is grammatically anchored to the wife rather than to Moses: the sons are marked with the feminine suffix -ha ("her"), and the final "with her" also uses the feminine suffix, so the clause reads that the two sons and the accompanying presence are tied to the wife's person, not directly to Jethro or Moses.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the sons' affiliation as "your two sons" (σου, masculine, referring to Moses) and adds "with him" (μετ' αὐτοῦ, masculine), where the Hebrew has banei-ha ("her sons") and imma-h ("with her"), both feminine, tying the sons and companionship to the wife. The Vulgate's "duo filii cum ea" ("two sons with her") matches the Hebrew's feminine reference. The LXX also adds Idou ("Behold") and phrases the report as third-person ("it was told to Moses, saying"), while the Hebrew and Vulgate present Jethro's words as direct first-person speech without an introductory "behold."