וּמֹשֶׁ֗ה הָיָ֥ה רֹעֶ֛ה אֶת־צֹ֛אן יִתְר֥וֹ חֹתְנ֖וֹ כֹּהֵ֣ן מִדְיָ֑ן וַיִּנְהַ֤ג אֶת־הַצֹּאן֙ אַחַ֣ר הַמִּדְבָּ֔ר וַיָּבֹ֛א אֶל־הַ֥ר הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים חֹרֵֽבָה׃
Or, Moïse faisait paître les brebis de Jéthro son beau-père, prêtre de Madian. Il avait conduit le bétail au fond du désert et était parvenu à la montagne divine, au mont Horeb.
On Husbandry
[43] He ascribes the same profession to Moses, the all-wise; for he also is appointed shepherd of a mind that welcomes conceit in preference to truth, and approves seeming in preference to being. For “Jethro” or “Iothor” means “uneven,” and self-conceit is an uneven and adventitious thing that comes in to beguile a fixed and steady life. It is a quality whose way is to introduce principles of right varying city by city; of one kind in this city, of another kind in that; not the same rule of right in all. The ordinances of nature that apply to all alike and are immovable it has never seen even in a dream. What we are told is that “Moses was shepherding the sheep of Jethro the priest of Midian” (Exod. 3:1).
On the Birth of Abel and the Sacrifices Offered by him and by his Brother Cain
[50] How admirable again is the example of Moses the guardian of the laws, who, judging the business of a shepherd to be a great and glorious task, took it upon himself. For we find him ruling and leading the thoughts and counsels of the worldling Jethro and drawing them away from the absorbing crowd and tumult of the citizen’s life into the lonely land where injustice is not; for he “led his sheep down into the wilderness” (Exod. 3:1).