Commentaire sur L’Exode 18:2

אחר שלוחיה AFTER HIS HAVING SENT HER AWAY — When God said to him in Midian, (Exodus 4:19, 20) “Go, return to Egypt … and Moses took his wife and his sons etc…. and Aaron went forth towards him and met him at the Mount of God”, he (Aaron) said to him, “Who are these?” He answered him, “This is my wife whom I married in Midian and these are my children”. He, thereupon, asked him, “Whither are you taking them?” He replied, “To Egypt”. Where-upon he said to him, “We have cause to grieve over the former ones (the Israelites already there), and you propose to add to their number!” Moses therefore said to her, “Return to your father’s house” — she took her two sons and went away (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 18:2).

AFTER HE HAD SENT HER AWAY. Because Scripture had [previously] mentioned, And Moses took his wife and his sons… and he returned to the land of Egypt,⁶⁰Verse 1. it became necessary to state here that she was in her father’s house, as Moses had sent her there. It is possible that Scripture is stating that Jethro took [Zipporah, Moses’s wife], to return her to him although he had sent her away. Having heard all that G-d had done for Moses,⁶⁰Verse 1. he thought that it was now time for her to follow the king wherever he would go.

אחר שלוחיה. After she (Tzipporah) had sent a message to him to find out where they were encamped. Moses had informed her that the Israelites would not stop anywhere for any length of time until they would reach the mountain of G’d, Mount Chorev, where they would serve the Lord. She must have known about this as Moses must have told her of G’d’s prediction in Exodus 3,12 that once out of Egypt the Jewish people would serve the Lord there at that mountain. This is the reason why it took Yitro so long before he came as he had to wait until the Jewish people would make camp for longer than one night.