Bible Strands
Exodus 2:22
And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses declares this after agreeing to stay with Jethro and marrying Zipporah, marking his settled status in Midian following his flight from Egypt. The statement occurs at the moment he names his firstborn son, grounding his personal history in his new geographic reality.
The words — The name גֵּרְשֹׁם (Gershom) literally encodes the action of dwelling as a foreigner, directly mirroring Moses’s own explanation that he has become a foreigner in a foreign land. This linguistic choice ties the personal event to the broader biblical theme of displacement.
The thread — Acts 7:29 records Moses living as a foreigner in Midian after his initial flight, while Exodus 22:21 commands Israel not to oppress foreigners because they themselves were foreigners in Egypt. Hebrews 11:13 notes that these figures died in faith without receiving the promised inheritance, extending the foreigner motif into the New Testament.
Why it lands — The verse requires a reader to acknowledge that divine calling often begins in displacement rather than triumph. It demands recognition that identity is reshaped by exile before it is restored by deliverance.
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 she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
Cross-references
- Acts 7:29 At this remark, Moses fled to the land of Midian, where he lived as a foreigner and had two sons.
- Hebrews 11:13 All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
- Exodus 22:21 You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
- 1 Chronicles 16:20 they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another.
- 1 Chronicles 29:15 For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
- Psalms 39:12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.
- Psalms 119:19 I am a stranger on the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me.
- Exodus 18:3 along with her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses had said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”
- 1 Chronicles 23:14 As for Moses the man of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi.
- Exodus 2:10 When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and explained, “I drew him out of the water.”