Exodus 2:18
New Catholic Bible
18 They returned to their father Reuel[a] who said to them, “Why are you back so soon today?”
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- Exodus 2:18 It was perhaps different traditions that gave Moses’ father-in-law different names: Reuel (here and in Num 10:29); Jethro (Ex 3:1; 4:18; 18:1). Hobab seems to be rather Moses’ brother-in-law (Num 10:29; Jdg 4:11). The Hebrew terms for degrees of kinship do not have a very precise meaning.
Exodus 4:24
New Catholic Bible
24 [a]On the way, when they were camped for the night, the Lord came and tried to kill Moses.
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- Exodus 4:24 The Lord came and tried to kill Moses: the reference may be to an incident similar to that described in Gen 32:25-33. Moses’ wife circumcises the boy and with his foreskin “touches [the] feet” (i.e., the genitals) of Moses. This seems intended as a rite that replaces circumcision, which Moses had not undergone. Spouse of blood: perhaps signifies “protected by the blood.”
Exodus 4:25
New Catholic Bible
25 Zipporah took a flint knife and cut the foreskin of her son and with it touched Moses’ feet and said, “You are now my spouse of blood.”
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Exodus 18:1-6
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 18
Moses Visited by His Father-in-Law.[a] 1 Jethro, the priest of Midian and the father-in-law of Moses, came to know what God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.
2 Jethro brought Zipporah, the wife of Moses, with him, for he had sent her back to him, 3 and also her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for he had said, “I am a stranger in a strange land,” 4 and the other named Eliezer, for he had said, “The God of my father has come to my assistance and has freed me from the sword of Pharaoh.”
5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, and the sons and wife of Moses came to him in the desert where he was camped, near the mountain of God. 6 He had it announced to Moses, “It is I, Jethro, your father-in-law. I have come with your wife and your two sons.”
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- Exodus 18:1 This passage is probably not in its correct place, since it says that the meeting took place near Mount Sinai. It is part of traditions according to which all links were not broken between the pagan peoples and the God of Israel.
Numbers 10:29
New Catholic Bible
29 Plea to Hobab. Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place that the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel.”
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