Exodus 18:2

2. After he had sent her back See notes on Exodus 4:24-26. The discrepancies which some interpreters find between this account and Moses’s return into Egypt narrated in Exodus 4:18-26, are creations of their own fancy . Our historian has not given us all the details . The statement of Exodus 4:20, that Moses took his wife and sons, and “returned to the land of Egypt,” is seen from the immediate context to mean that he started with them to return, and that they accompanied him until the incident which occurred by the way (Exodus 18:24-26) served as an occasion for her returning with her sons to her father’s house . This simple and natural supposition solves all the difficulties, and is itself suggested by the record here given . The work and exposures of Moses in Egypt made it expedient that his wife and children return and abide in Midian until he should return home from Egypt at the head of his people . Another reasonable hypothesis is, that Moses took his wife and sons to Egypt, and that after the opposition to his mission became formidable, he secretly sent them back from Egypt to the home of Jethro.