Exodus 3:1

Clementine Latin Vulgate

Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terræ quæ fecerat Dominus Deus. Qui dixit ad mulierem : Cur præcepit vobis Deus ut non comederetis de omni ligno paradisi ?

Parallel Translations

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Moyses autem pascebat oves Jethro soceri sui sacerdotis Madian: cumque minasset gregem ad interiora deserti, venit ad montem Dei Horeb.

Nova Vulgata (1979)
Moyses autem pascebat oves Iethro soceri sui sacerdotis Ma dian; cumque minasset gregem ultra desertum, venit ad montem Dei Horeb.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

am 2513, bc 1491

kept: Psalms 78:70-72, Amos 1:1, Amos 7:14, Amos 7:15, Matthew 4:18, Matthew 4:19, Luke 2:8

his father: Exodus 2:16, Exodus 2:21, Exodus 18:1-6, Numbers 10:29, Judges 4:11

the mountain: Exodus 3:5, Exodus 18:5, Exodus 19:3, Exodus 19:11, Exodus 24:15-17, 1 Kings 19:8

Horeb: Exodus 17:6, Deuteronomy 1:6, Deuteronomy 4:10, Psalms 106:19, Malachi 4:4

Reciprocal: Genesis 4:2 - And Abel Genesis 31:40 - General Genesis 46:32 - shepherds Exodus 2:18 - General Exodus 4:18 - Jethro Exodus 4:27 - the mount Exodus 19:2 - camped Numbers 10:33 - the mount Deuteronomy 26:7 - we cried Judges 1:16 - Moses' 1 Samuel 16:19 - with the sheep 1 Kings 19:19 - he with 1 Chronicles 17:7 - I took thee Isaiah 37:9 - Ethiopia Acts 7:30 - there Hebrews 1:1 - at 2 Peter 1:18 - the holy

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian,.... Who was either the same with Reuel or Raguel, spoken of in the preceding chapter; or, as others think, a son of his, the father being now dead; seeing it was now forty years since Moses came into Midian, Acts 7:30. Demetrius c, an Heathen writer, expressly says that Jothor a son of Raguel, and Zipporah or Sepphora, as he calls her, was his daughter, whom Moses married: now this was the business Moses was chiefly concerned in during his stay in Midian; keeping the sheep of his father-in-law, in which great personages have have employed, and who have afterwards been called to the kingly office, as David; and this was an emblem of his feeding and ruling the people of Israel, and in it he was an eminent type of Christ, the great shepherd and bishop of souls: no doubt there were other things besides this in which Moses exercised himself in this course of time, and improved himself in the knowledge of things, natural, civil, and religious, and which the more qualified him for the important work he was designed for: it is thought that in this interval he wrote the book of Genesis, and also the book of Job:

and he led the flock to the backside of the desert; of Sinai or Arabia, on the back part of which, it seems, were goodly pastures; and hither he led his flock to feed, which was about three days' journey from Egypt, Exodus 5:3 or rather into the desert d, for Horeb or Sinai was not behind the desert, but in it:

and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb; so called either because of the appearance of God at this time, after related, or because of his giving the law and making the covenant with the people of Israel there; and it should be observed that that transaction was past when Moses wrote this book. Hither he led the sheep, they delighting in mountains, hence sometimes mountainous places are called

οιοπολα, e, because sheep delight to feed upon them f.

c Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 29. p. 439. d אחר המדבר υπο την ερεμον, Sept. "in desertum", Syr. Samar, so Noldius, p. 11. No. 76. e Homer. Odyss. 11. prope finem. f Εν ουρεσι μαλα νομευων, Theocrit. Idyll. 3.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Jethro his father-in-law - Or “brother-in-law.” The word in the Hebrew is a word signifying relative by marriage. When Moses arrived in Midian, Reuel was an elderly man Exodus 2:16; Exodus 40:0 years later (Exodus 2:23 note), Reuel’s son, Jethro, had probably succeeded him.

The backside - i. e. “to the west of the district.” Among the Hebrews the East is before a man, the west behind him, the south and north on the right and left hand.

Desert - Or wilderness, not a barren waste, but a district supplying pasturage. The district near Sherm, on the west of the gulf of Akabah, where Jethro may have resided, is described as barren and parched; on the west and east are rocky tracts, but to the northwest lies the district of Sinai, where the pasturage is good and water abundant. The Bedouins drive their flocks there from the lowlands at the approach of summer. From this it may be inferred that the events here recorded took place at that season.

To Horeb - More exactly, toward Horeb. Moses came to the mountain of God, i. e. Sinai, on his way toward Horeb, a name given to the northern part of the Sinaitic range. Moses calls Sinai “mountain of God” by anticipation, with reference to the manifestation of God. There is no authority for assuming that the spot was previously held sacred (see Exodus 5:5); but it has been lately shown that the whole Peninsula was regarded by the Egyptians as specially consecrated to the gods from a very early time.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER III

Moses keeping the flock of Jethro at Mount Horeb, the angel of

the Lord appears to him in a burning bush, 1, 2.

Astonished at the sight, he turns aside to examine it, 3,

when God speaks to him out of the fire, and declares himself to

be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 4-6;

announces his purpose of delivering the Israelites from their

oppression, and of bringing them into the promised land, 7-9;

commissions him to go to Pharaoh, and to be leader of the

children of Israel from Egypt, 10.

Moses excuses himself, 11;

and God, to encourage him, promises him his protection, 12.

Moses doubts whether the Israelites will credit him, 13,

and God reveals to him his NAME, and informs him what he is to

say to the people, 14-17,

and instructs him and the elders of Israel to apply unto Pharaoh

for permission to go three days' journey into the wilderness, to

sacrifice unto the Lord, 18;

foretells the obstinacy of the Egyptian king, and the miracles

which he himself should work in the sight of the Egyptians, 19, 20;

and promises that, on the departure of the Israelites, the

Egyptians should be induced to furnish them with all necessaries

for their journey, 21, 22.

NOTES ON CHAP. III

Verse Exodus 3:1. Jethro his father-in-law — Concerning Jethro, Exodus 2:18; Exodus 2:18. Learned men are not agreed on the signification of the word חתן chothen, which we translate father-in-law, and which in Genesis 19:14, we translate son-in-law. It seems to be a general term for a relative by marriage, and the connection only in which it stands can determine its precise meaning. It is very possible that Reuel was now dead, it being forty years since Moses came to Midian; that Jethro was his son, and had succeeded him in his office of prince and priest of Midian; that Zipporah was the sister of Jethro; and that consequently the word חתן chothen should be translated brother-in-law in this place: as we learn from Genesis 34:9, Deuteronomy 7:3, Joshua 23:12, and other places, that it simply signifies to contract affinity by marriage. If this conjecture be right, we may well suppose that, Reuel being dead, Moses was continued by his brother-in-law Jethro in the same employment he had under his father.

Mountain of God — Sometimes named Horeb, at other times Sinai. The mountain itself had two peaks; one was called Horeb, the other Sinai. Horeb was probably the primitive name of the mountain, which was afterwards called the mountain of God, because God appeared upon it to Moses; and Mount Sinai, סיני, from סנה seneh, a bush, because it was in a bush or bramble, in a flame of fire, that this appearance was made.