Exodus 2:16
New International Version
Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.

New Living Translation
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters who came as usual to draw water and fill the water troughs for their father’s flocks.

English Standard Version
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

Berean Standard Bible
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.

King James Bible
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

New King James Version
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

New American Standard Bible
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

NASB 1995
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

NASB 1977
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

Legacy Standard Bible
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to give water to their father’s flock to drink.

Amplified Bible
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water [from the well where Moses was resting] and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

Christian Standard Bible
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

American Standard Version
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And the Priest of Midian had seven daughters and they were coming and drawing out water and filled the water trough to water the flocks of their father.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And the priest of Madiam had seven daughters, feeding the flock of their father Jothor; and they came and drew water until they filled their pitchers, to water the flock of their father Jothor.

Contemporary English Version
the seven daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, came up to water their father's sheep and goats.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the priest of Madian had seven daughters, who came to draw water: and when the troughs were filled, desired to water their father's flocks.

English Revised Version
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
seven daughters of the priest of Midian came. They drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's sheep.

International Standard Version
Meanwhile, the seven daughters of a certain Midianite priest would come to draw water in order to fill water troughs for their father's sheep.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

Literal Standard Version
And to a priest of Midian [are] seven daughters, and they come and draw, and fill the troughs to water the flock of their father,

Majority Standard Bible
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.

New American Bible
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.

NET Bible
Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and began to draw water and fill the troughs in order to water their father's flock.

New Revised Standard Version
The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

New Heart English Bible
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

Webster's Bible Translation
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

World English Bible
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

Young's Literal Translation
And to a priest of Midian are seven daughters, and they come and draw, and fill the troughs, to water the flock of their father,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Moses Flees to Midian
15When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well. 16Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.…

Cross References
Genesis 24:11
As evening approached, he made the camels kneel down near the well outside the town at the time when the women went out to draw water.

Genesis 24:13
Here I am, standing beside the spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water.

Genesis 29:2
He looked and saw a well in the field, and near it lay three flocks of sheep, because the sheep were watered from this well. And a large stone covered the mouth of the well.

Genesis 29:6
"Is he well?" Jacob inquired. "Yes," they answered, "and here comes his daughter Rachel with his sheep."

Genesis 29:9
While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

Genesis 29:10
As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother's brother Laban, with Laban's sheep, he went up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle's sheep.

Exodus 3:1
Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.


Treasury of Scripture

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

the priest.

Exodus 3:1
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

Genesis 14:18
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

Genesis 41:45
And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

they came.

Genesis 24:11,14-20
And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water

Genesis 29:6-10
And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well: and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep…

1 Samuel 9:11
And as they went up the hill to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water, and said unto them, Is the seer here?

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Exodus 2
1. Moses is born, and placed in a basket in the reeds of Nile.
5. He is found, and brought up by Pharaoh's daughter;
7. who employs his mother to nurse him.
11. He kills an Egyptian.
13. He reproves a Hebrew.
15. He flees into Midian, and marries Zipporah.
22. Gershom is born.
23. God respects the Israelites' cry.














(16) The priest of Midian.--Reuel may have been both "priest" and "prince," like Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18); but there is no reason to doubt that he is here called "priest." In Exodus 18:12, Jethro is represented as exercising priestly functions. The Midianites, descendants of Abraham by Keturah, worshipped the true God, and seem to have been at this time a religious people. The name Reuel, or Raguel, means "friend of God." Jethro's sacrifices were "for God," and Aaron and the elders eat bread with him "before God."

They came and drew water.--Comp. Genesis 29:9. According to Oriental ideas, there is nothing derogatory in the daughters of a chief so acting.

Verses 16-22. - LIFE OF MOSES IN MIDIAN. Fugitives from Egypt generally took the northern route from Pelusium or Migdol to Gaza, and so to Syria, or the regions beyond. But in this quarter they were liable to be arrested and sent back to the Egyptian monarch. Rameses II: put a special clause to this effect into his treaty with the contemporary Hittite king (Brugsch, 'History of Egypt,' vol. 2 p. 73). It was, perhaps, the fear of extradition which made Moses turn his steps southeastward, and proceed along the route, or at any rate in the direction, which he afterwards took with his nation. Though Egypt had possessions in the Sinaitic peninsula, it was not difficult to avoid them; and before Sinai was reached the fugitive would be in complete safety, for the Egyptians seem never to have penetrated to the southern or eastern parts of the great triangle. "The well," by which Moses took up his abode, is placed with some probability in the neighbourhood of Sherm, about ten miles north-east of Ras Mahommed, the southern cape of the peninsula Verse 16. - The priest of Midian. Cohen is certainly "priest" here, and not "prince," since the father-in-law of Moses exercises priestly functions in Exodus 18:12. His seven daughters drew water for his flock, in accordance with Eastern custom. So Rachel "kept the sheep" of her father Laban, and watered them (Genesis 29:9). Such a practice agrees well with the simplicity of primitive times and peoples; nor would it even at the present day be regarded as strange in Arabia.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Now the priest
וּלְכֹהֵ֥ן (ū·lə·ḵō·hên)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3548: Priest

of Midian
מִדְיָ֖ן (miḏ·yān)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 4080: Midian -- a son of Abraham and Keturah, also his descendants and the region where they settled

had seven
שֶׁ֣בַע (še·ḇa‘)
Number - feminine singular
Strong's 7651: Seven, seven times, a week, an indefinite number

daughters,
בָּנ֑וֹת (bā·nō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 1323: A daughter

and they came
וַתָּבֹ֣אנָה (wat·tā·ḇō·nāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine plural
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

to draw water
וַתִּדְלֶ֗נָה (wat·tiḏ·le·nāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine plural
Strong's 1802: To dangle, to let down a, bucket, to deliver

and fill
וַתְּמַלֶּ֙אנָה֙ (wat·tə·mal·le·nāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine plural
Strong's 4390: To fill, be full of

the troughs
הָ֣רְהָטִ֔ים (hā·rə·hā·ṭîm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 7298: A channel, watering-box, ringlet of hair

to water
לְהַשְׁק֖וֹת (lə·haš·qō·wṯ)
Preposition-l | Verb - Hifil - Infinitive construct
Strong's 8248: To quaff, to irrigate, furnish a, potion to

their father’s
אֲבִיהֶֽן׃ (’ă·ḇî·hen)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person feminine plural
Strong's 1: Father

flock.
צֹ֥אן (ṣōn)
Noun - common singular construct
Strong's 6629: Small cattle, sheep and goats, flock


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OT Law: Exodus 2:16 Now the priest of Midian had seven (Exo. Ex)
Exodus 2:15
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