Bible Strands
Exodus 2:18
When the daughters returned to their father Reuel, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Reuel addresses his daughters immediately after they arrive home from the well. He speaks to them upon their return, prior to their explanation of Moses’ intervention.
The words — מִהַרְתֶּן (mi.har.Ten) means "did you hurry," and מַדּוּעַ (ma.Du.a') translates to "why?" These terms frame his direct inquiry about their unusually swift return from the field.
The thread — The narrative of Reuel and his daughters reappears in Exodus 3:1 and Exodus 4:18, where he is identified as Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law. Numbers 10:29 also references Reuel as Moses’ Midianite father-in-law.
Why it lands — The text records a simple question about timing following Moses’ rescue of the flock. It asks the reader to observe how the narrative tracks the immediate domestic consequences of that intervention.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
Cross-references
- Exodus 3:1 Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
- Exodus 4:18 Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me return to my brothers in Egypt to see if they are still alive.” “Go in peace,” Jethro replied.
- Numbers 10:29 Then Moses said to Hobab, the son of Moses’ father-in-law Reuel the Midianite, “We are setting out for the place of which 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.”
- Exodus 18:1 Now Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard about all that God had done for Moses and His people Israel, and how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.
- Numbers 19:20 But if a person who is unclean does not purify himself, he will be cut off from the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.