(4) Eliezer.--Eliezer is supposed to have been the boy whom Zipporah circumcised in the wilderness (Exodus 4:25). He grew to manhood, and had a son, Rehabiah (1Chronicles 23:17), whose descendants were in the time of David very numerous (1Chronicles 23:17; and comp. 1Chronicles 26:25-26). It is uncertain whether Moses gave him his name before parting from him, in allusion to his escape from the Pharaoh who "sought to slay him" (Exodus 2:15), or first named him on occasion of receiving him back, in allusion to his recent escape from the host which had been destroyed in the Red Sea.

Verse 4. - Eliezer. Eliezer had not been previously mentioned by name; but he was probably the son circumcised by Zipporah, as related in ch. 4:25. We learn from 1 Chronicles 23:15-17, that he grew to manhood, and had an only son, Rehabiah, whose descendants were in the time of Solomon very numerous. For the God of my father, said he, was my help. Eliezer means literally, "My God (is my) help." It would seem that Zipporah, when she circumcised her infant son, omitted to name him; but Moses, before dismissing her, supplied the omission, calling him Eliezer, because God had been his help against the Pharaoh who had sought his life (Exodus 2:15), and of whose death he had recently had intelligence (Exodus 4:19). Thus the names of the two sons expressed respectively, the despondency natural to an exile, and the exultant gratitude of one who had just learned that by God's goodness, the term of his banishment was over.

18:1-6 Jethro came to rejoice with Moses in the happiness of Israel, and to bring his wife and children to him. Moses must have his family with him, that while he ruled the church of God, he might set a good example in family government, 1Ti 3:5.And the name of the other was Eliezer,.... Who seems to be his second son, and was that which was circumcised by Zipporah at the inn, and about which there was such a stir, Exodus 4:24, and signifies "my God is help", or, his helper:

for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh; who, on hearing that Moses had killed an Egyptian, was wroth with him, and sought to slay him; and perhaps drew his sword for that purpose, but was prevented: however, this, in all human probability, would have been the case, that he would have fallen by his sword either in a private or public manner, had it not been for the interposition of divine Providence, and therefore he gave this name to his child, to be a standing memorial of it.