Jethro Meaning in the Bible

Jethro renders the Hebrew Yitro (יִתְרוֹ), from yeter, 'abundance, excellence, remainder' — usually glossed 'his excellence' or 'his abundance.' He is also called Reuel in Exodus 2:18 and Hobab in Judges 4:11, which has generated centuries of discussion; the likeliest explanations are a clan name alongside a personal name, or a title.

Jethro was 'the priest of Midian' (Exodus 3:1) — not an Israelite, and not a worshipper of Yahweh by inheritance. Moses spent forty years in his household keeping his flock, and it was while doing that ordinary work that he saw the burning bush. The Midianite priest is therefore the man in whose employ Israel's deliverer was formed.

Exodus 18 is his moment. Watching Moses judge the people alone from morning to evening, Jethro says bluntly, 'The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away' (18:17–18). He proposes delegated leadership over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens, and Moses — who had just parted a sea — 'hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.' Scripture presents the humility of the great man and the wisdom of the outsider as equally noteworthy.

Jethro is rare as a modern given name and carries a rustic, slightly Southern-American colouring in the US. Its virtues are a short, unfussy sound, an unambiguous spelling, and an association with counsel rather than conquest — an unusual thing to name a son for.