2:16).</b> Was it proper for this righteous man to go to the home of an idolater? After all, since the Holy one, blessed be He, detests idolatry, why did he permit Moses to go to a place where idols were worshipped? That fact is that though Jethro had been the priest of idolaters, he always held idols in contempt. Jethro was convinced of their falseness and despised them. In fact he had decided to repent even prior to the arrival of Moses. He had summoned his townsmen and told them: “I have served you until now, but now I am old; select another priest.” Because he had returned the paraphernalia used in idolatrous worship, they were angry with him, and turned against him so violently that no one would speak to him, or work for him, or tend his flocks. He pleaded with the shepherds to care for his flocks, but they refused. Hence his daughters were compelled to take them out to pasture, as it is said: <i>Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters</i> (Exod. 2:16).
<i>And the shepherds came and drove them away</i> (ibid., v. 17). If he had been a great and powerful priest of Midian, would they have dared drive them away? This teaches us that they oppressed him and drove his daughters away just as a divorced woman is driven away, as Scripture states: <i>So he drove out the man</i> (Gen. 3:24). <i>But Moses stood up and saved them</i> (Exod. 3:17). You learn from this that the shepherds were about to attack them, as is stated in the verse: <i>The betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her</i> (Deut. 22:27). <i>And when they came to Reuel, their father … they said: “An Egyptian saved us”</i> (Exod. 2:18).
Did Moses actually look like an Egyptian? No. This implies that if it had not been for the Egyptian whom he slew, Moses would not have entered Midian. This may be compared to a man bitten by a wild ass. After he is bitten he runs to the water’s edge to bathe his feet. As he is about to enter the river, he sees a drowning child, and he stretches out his hand, and rescues the child. The child then says to him: “Were it not for you, I would have died.” But the man replies: “Not I, but the wild ass that bit me, and from whom I was fleeing, was actually responsible for your rescue.”
Similarly, when Jethro’s daughters said to Him: “We thank you for saving us from the shepherds,” Moses replied: “It was the Egyptian whom I killed who actually was responsible for your rescue.” Therefore they said to their father: “It was an Egyptian,” in order to tell him that the man responsible for his coming to us was the Egyptian whom he had slain. <i>And he said unto his daughters: “And where is he?”</i> (ibid., v. 20). He said to them: “All that ye have told me concerning his drawing the water from the well and watering the flock is, indeed, a sign that he is a descendant of those who stood at the well, for the well recognized its master. <i>Call him, that he may eat bread</i> (ibid.), perhaps he will wed one of you,” as it is said: <i>He knew not aught save the bread which he did eat</i> (Gen. 39:6). And Scripture also says: <i>Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant</i> (Prov. 9:17), and <i>For on account of a harlot a man is brought to a loaf of bread</i> (ibid. 6:26).