What Does Exodus 18:1 Mean?
When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt;
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt;THE KEY
The release does not end at the exit: it becomes news that crosses beyond the people who were brought out.
THE MEANING
When you are brought out of constriction, the release does not have to remain private; its report can reach someone beyond your immediate circle. The LORD’s action is heard by someone who did not stand inside the struggle.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that only people inside your struggle can recognize what has been done: the news reaches a hearer beyond Israel’s circle.
THE ROOT
הוֹצִיא
hôṣîʾ
GROWS FROM
יצא
to go out, leave, emerge
The verb is causative: the LORD causes Israel to go out, so the exit is already inside the word translated “brought out.” The place named as Egypt is Mitzrayim (מִצְרַיִם, Miṣrayim), carrying the image of constriction; the verse’s movement runs from narrowness into open space.
ALSO GROWS
yāṣāʾ: to go out, depart
יָצָא
This is the basic motion beneath הוֹצִיא: being brought out is the causative form of going out.
yĕṣîʾāh: going out, departure
יְצִיאָה
This noun keeps the same root letters and names the exit itself, making the movement in the verse more than a change of location.
שָׁמַע
šāmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
to hear, listen
The root can name hearing and the report that is heard. The LORD’s action reaches Jethro as news, carrying the release into the awareness of someone beyond its first witnesses.
ALSO GROWS
šēmaʿ: report, news
שֵׁמַע
This branch names what is heard, linking Jethro’s hearing to the report of what God has done.
šĕmûʿāh: report, tidings
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch makes the sound-to-news connection explicit: an act becomes tidings that travel to another hearer.
עָשָׂה
ʿāśāh
GROWS FROM
עשה
to do, make, accomplish
“had done” in this verse is ʿāśāh. The news is anchored in what God has actually done, not in an abstract promise. This root can name both the act of doing and the deed that remains to be told.
ALSO GROWS
maʿăśeh: deed, work, act
מַעֲשֶׂה
The report Jethro hears is a telling of God’s deeds, the concrete branch of the root’s action.
ʿăśiyyāh: doing, action
עֲשִׂיָּה
This branch keeps attention on the action itself: the report carries what God has done into another person’s hearing.
THE PATTERN
The report of release travels beyond its first witnesses, carrying what God has done to new hearers.
For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before your face, when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, who were across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.Come and hear, all you who stand in awe of God, and I will recount what he has done for my living soul.But Jesus did not allow him, and said to him, "Go to your house, to your own, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for you, and has had compassion on you."THE THREAD
And it came to be on this very bone of the day, that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.The Hebrew verb הוֹצִיא repeats the same causative form from יצא: the LORD causes Israel to go out. Here that movement arrives as news in Jethro’s hearing, so the release itself crosses beyond those who experienced it.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us