Exodus 2:17

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁶ Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. ¹⁷ The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. ¹⁸ When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, "How is it that you have returned so early today?" ¹⁹ They said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock." ²⁰ He said to his daughters, "Where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread." ²¹ Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter. ²² She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

shepherds: Genesis 21:25, Genesis 26:15-22

watered: Exodus 2:12, Genesis 29:10

Reciprocal: Genesis 13:7 - a strife Judges 5:11 - in the places

Cross-References

Genesis 2:1
The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

Genesis 2:4
This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made earth and the heavens.

Genesis 2:6
but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground.

Genesis 2:9
Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:10
A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became four heads.

Genesis 2:12
and the gold of that land is good. There is aromatic resin and the onyx stone.

Genesis 2:13
The name of the second river is Gihon: the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.

Genesis 2:18
Yahweh God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."

Genesis 2:20
The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper suitable for him.

Genesis 2:21
Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the shepherds came and drove them away,.... The daughters of the priest of Midian, and their flock likewise; these were shepherds of some neighbouring princes or great men, who were so rude and slothful, and to save themselves a little trouble of drawing water, brought up their flocks to drink of the water those virgins had drawn, and to do this forced them and their flocks away:

but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock; moved to see such rude and uncivil treatment of the weaker sex, rose up from the ground on which he sat, and took their parts, and obliged the shepherds to give way, and brought up their flock to the troughs, and drew water for them, and gave them it; either he did this alone, or together with the servants that waited upon the priest's daughters, perhaps alone; and if it be considered that shepherds being usually not of a very martial spirit, and these also in a wrong cause, and Moses a man of an heroic disposition, and had doubtless the appearance of a man of some eminence and authority, they were the more easily intimidated and overcome.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 2:17. The shepherds - drove them — The verb יגרשים yegareshum, being in the masculine gender, seems to imply that the shepherds drove away the flocks of Reuel's daughters, and not the daughters themselves. The fact seems to be, that, as the daughters of Reuel filled the troughs and brought their flocks to drink, the shepherds drove those away, and, profiting by the young women's labour, watered their own cattle. Moses resisted this insolence, and assisted them to water their flocks, in consequence of which they were enabled to return much sooner than they were wont to do, Exodus 2:18.