Jethro

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jethro is a person in the Book of Exodus who is also called Reuel. He lived in Midian and was a Priest there. Since he had no sons, he sent his daughters to get water for his sheep. But male shepherds stopped them by the Well so Moses came and helped the girls by making the men go away. When Jethro’s daughters came back to him, Jethro told them to bring Moses home to him and they did. Jethro hired Moses to be his shepherd and Moses married Jethro’s daughter Tzippora and had two sons Gershom and Eliezer. When Hashem appeared to Moses and told him to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt, Jethro told Moses “go to Peace”. Jethro later met Moses again in the desert and told him not to be the only Judge but to appoint other judges since Moses couldn’t do everything on his own. Moses listened to Jethro’s advice.

The Midrash[change | change source]

According to The Midrash, Jethro chose to worship only Hashem and a lot of other Midianites were angry with him about it. The Midrash also says that Jethro was also known as Paltiel and that his daughter Elisheva married Aaron.