What Does Exodus 18:2 Mean in the King James?
Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse names Zipporah’s separation as a sending away, yet still calls her Moses’ wife: release has not erased the bond.
THE MEANING
The separation is real, and the relationship is still named: Jethro takes Zipporah after her sending away while she remains identified as Moses’ wife. Being sent away does not by itself erase belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that once someone is sent away, the bond no longer exists; the verse still names the bond after the separation.
THE ROOT
שִׁלּוּחֶיהָ
shillūḥehā
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send or send forth; here, a sending away.
“sent her back” in this verse is shillūḥehā. The Hebrew wording is literally “after her sending away,” carrying the root sense of an outward sending or release. The verse holds that release beside continued belonging, naming Zipporah as Moses’ wife when Jethro takes her.
ALSO GROWS
shālaḥ: To send outward or send forth.
שָׁלַח
This is the verb behind the phrase, so “sent her back” also carries the sense of a sending away.
shillūaḥ: An act of sending someone away.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This form names the separation as an event that happens before Jethro takes her.
חֹתֵן
ḥōtēn
GROWS FROM
חתן
ḥ-t-n
To become related through marriage.
“father in law” in this verse is ḥōtēn. The family title carries the marriage bond in its own root. Jethro’s relation to Moses is named through the same bond that identifies Zipporah as Moses’ wife, even after her sending away.
ALSO GROWS
ḥātān: A man joined to a family through marriage.
חָתָן
This form shows the root’s connection to the marriage bond that makes Jethro Moses’ father-in-law.
ḥōtēn: A wife’s father or a husband’s father-in-law.
חֹתֵן
Jethro’s title locates him within the marriage relation that remains named in the verse.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōsheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
To draw out, especially from water.
Moses’ name carries the sense of being drawn out. Beside the language of sending away, that name adds another movement of release to the verse’s picture without making the two actions identical.
ALSO GROWS
māshāh: To pull or draw something out, as from water.
מָשָׁה
This verb is the root linked to Moses’ name and gives the name its sense of being drawn out.
Mōsheh: Moses’ name, associated with being drawn out of the water.
מֹשֶׁה
The name places the idea of being drawn out alongside Zipporah’s sending away and renewed reception.
THE PATTERN
Separation need not be the final word when return is met with reception.
But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.THE THREAD
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.“Sent” is שָׁלַח (shālaḥ, send or release), the same root carried by “her sending away.” Here the outward sending carries a healing word, showing that what follows the sending can change its meaning.
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