Jethro
The name Jethro means “his excellence; his posterity.” Jethro is mentioned in 16 verses of the Bible, first in Exodus 2:18. Also called Deuel,Reuel,Raguel.
Family of Jethro
Who was Jethro?
His excellence, or gain, a prince or priest of Midian, who succeeded his father Reuel. Moses spent forty years after his exile from the Egyptian court as keeper of Jethro’s flocks. While the Israelites were encamped at Sinai, and soon after their victory over Amalek, Jethro came to meet Moses, bringing with him Zipporah and her two sons. They met at the “mount of God,” and “Moses told him all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh” (Ex. 18:8). On the following day Jethro, observing the multiplicity of the duties devolving on Moses, advised him to appoint subordinate judges, rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, to decide smaller matters, leaving only the weightier matters to be referred to Moses, to be laid before the Lord. This advice Moses adopted (Ex. 18). He was also called Hobab (q.v.), which was probably his personal name, while Jethro was an official name. (See MOSES.)
Biography adapted from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), public domain, linked via Theographic Bible Metadata.
Key verses about Jethro
- Exodus 2:18
And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
- Exodus 3:1
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
- Exodus 18:1
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;
- Exodus 18:2
Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back,
- Exodus 18:5
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:
- Exodus 18:6
And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.