Exodus 18:12 - Exposition

Jethro took a burnt offering . Or " brought a burnt offering;" as the same verb is rendered in Exodus 25:2 . It is not distinctly related that he offered the victim; but as no other offerer is mentioned, and as he was a priest ( Exodus 3:1 ; Exodus 18:1 ), we may assume that he did so. Moses, Aaron, and the elders, partook of the sacrificial meal, regarding the whole rite as one legitimately performed by a duly qualified person, and so as one in which they could properly participate. Jethro, like Melchisedek ( Genesis 14:18 ), was recognised as a priest of the true God, though it would seem that the Midianites generally were, a generation later, idolaters ( Numbers 25:18 ; Numbers 31:16 ). To eat bread … before God . This expression designates the feast upon a sacrifice, which was the universal custom of ancient nations, whether Egyptians, Assyrians, Phenicians, Persians, Greeks, or Romans. Except in the case of the "whole burnt offering" ( ὁλοκαύτωμα ), parts only of the animals were burnt, the greater portion of the meat being consumed, with bread, at a meal, by the offerer and his friends and relatives