JETHETH
903
JETHRO
and was for this reason also called the Ishmaelito, as Obed Edom is also called the Gittite (2 Sam. vi), or Hi- ram's father the Ziiri or Tyrian (1 Kings vi). David Kirachi also adduces a suggestion of his father, to the eftect " that in the land of Ishmacl Jether was called the Israelite from his nationality, and in that of Israel they called him the Ishmaelite on account of his living in the land of Ishmael." Josephus calls him 'It^dpatic; (.4h/. vii, 10, 1). He married Abigail, David's sister, probably during the sojourn of the family of Jesse in the land of Moab, under the protection of its king. See Amasa.
6. (Sept. 'It^ip V. r. 'li^ijp.) An Asherite (head of a warrior family numbering 26,000) whose three sons are named in 1 Chron. vii, 38 ; possibly the same with Ini- KAN of the preceding verse.
7. Whether the Jthrites (I'^n^, Sept. 'E^ipaToc, 'liSoi, 'li^fpi, Tf 5p(V?;c, Vulg. Jethrites, Jethrceua, etc.) Ira and Gareb, mentioned in 2 Sam. xxiii, 38, etc., were natives of an otherwise imknown place called Jether, or of Jathir, "l^r"^, one of David's places of refuge (1 Sam. XXX, 27), or descendants of one Jether — the least probable suggestion — cannot now be determined. See Ithhitp:.
Je'thetll (Heb. Yethcth', TT-"}, prob. a. peg, or fig. a jjrince ; Sept. 'It^iSr and 'ItSrip, the last apparently from falsely reading "^ri"; \u\g.Je/Iiet/i),t]\e third named of the petty Edomitish sheiks in Mount Seir (Gen. xxxvi, 40; 1 Ciiron. i, 51). B.C. ante 1658. See Esau. As to identification, El-Wetickh is a place in Nejd, said to be in the Dahnii [see Isiibak] ; there is also a place called El-WeticI, and El-\Vetidut, which is the name of mountains belonging to Bene Abd-Allah Ibn-Ghatfan (^Mardsiil. s. v.) (Smith). See Arabia.
Jeth'lah (Heb. Yithluh', Hbr^, suspended, i. e. lof- ty; Sept. 'ItSrXci V. r. S/\a5«, Yulg. Jethelti), a city on the borders of the tribe of Dan, mentioned between Ajalon and Elon (Josh, xix, 42). The associated names seem to indicate a locaUty in the eastern part of the tribe, not far from the modern el-Atrun (Ataroth), per- haps the ruined site marked on Van de Yelde's Map (last ed.) as Arnicas (Nicopolis). See Emiiaus, 2.
Jeth'ro (Heb. Yithro', i'lri';', i. q. ")iir.% excellence or fjtiiiu as often in Eccles. ; occurs in Exod. iii, 1 ; iv, 18; xviii, 1, 2, 5, G, 9, 10, 12; Sept. 'Io3op) or Jether ("ir^ abundance, as often; occurs with reference to this person, Exod. iv, 18, where it is Anglicized "Jethro" in the Auth.Vers., though in the Heb.-Sam. text and Sam. version the reading is lir'^, as in the Syriac and Targ. Jon., one of Kennicott's JMSS., and a MS. of Targ. Onk., No. 16 in De liossi's collection; Sept. 'Io3-op), a "priest or prince (for the word "flS carries both signi- fications, and both these offices were united in the pa- triarchal sheiks) of Midian, a tract of country in Ara- bia PetraBa, on the eastern border of the Red Sea, at no great distance from Mount Sinai, where Moses spent his exile from the Egyptian court, B.C. 1698. The family of this individual seems, in the seqael at least, to have observed the worship of the true (Jod in common with the Hebrews (Exod. xviii, 11. 12), and from this cir- cumstance some suppose it to have been a branch of the posterity of jMidian, fourth son of Abraham, by Ketn- rah, while others, on the contrary, maintain that the aspersion cast upon iMoses for having married a Cushite is inconsistent with tlie idea of its genealogical descent from that patriarch (Calmet). See Midiax.
" Considerable difKculty has been felt in determining who this person was, as well as his exact relation to Moses ; for the word 'rn, which, in Exod. iii, 1 ; Numb. X, 29; Judg. iv, 11, is translated /</^^e?--zn-/(/?/', and in Gen. xix, 14, son-in-kne, is a term of indeterminate sig- nification, denoting simply relationship by marriage; and besides, the transaction which in one place (Exod.
xviii, 27) is related of Jethro, seems to be in another related of Hobab (Numb, x, 28). Hence some have concluded that, as forty years had elapsed since IMoses's connection with this family was formed, his father-in- law (Exod. ii, 18), Keuel or Kaguel (the same word in the original is used in both places), was dead, or con- fined to his tent by the infirmities of age, and that the person who visited IMoses at the foot of Sinai was his brother-in-law, called JIubuh in Numb, x, 29 ; Judg. iv, 11 ; Jethro in Exod. iii, 1 ; and in Judg. i, 16, Keni ("^Pi^, which there, as well as in iv, 11, is rendered 'the Ke- nite')" (Kitto). Against this explanation, however, there lies this serious objection, that in Numb, x, 29 Hobab is expressly called the son of Kaguel (or Reuel), who in Exod. ii, 16-21 is evidently made the father-in- law of Moses, and in iii, 1 is clearlj^ the same as Jethro. Nor will the interpretation of the Targum avail, which makes Heuel the grandfather of Jloses's wife (by a fre- quent Hebraism of '■daughter" for granddaughter, etc.); tor then Moses's real fatlier-in-law would be nowhere named ; and it is clearly Jethro whose flocks he kept, and to whom he " made obeisance" (Exod. xviii, 7) ; which, with other incidental allusions, are all natural on the supposition that IMoses was his son-in-law, but are out of place in a brother-in-law. Besides, it is Jethro who is called the sacerdotal and tribal head of the clan, which coidd not, under the patriarchal domestic consti- tution, have been the case had his father Keuel been still ajive. If, indeed, we could accept the ingenious conjecture of Ewald (Gesch. des Isr. sec. ii, 33) that, by an ancient clerical error, the words "p Tin", "Jethro, son of," had dropped out before the name of Reuel, it would then be easy, with the Targum Jonathan, Aben-Ezra, Kosenmiiller, etc., to assume that Jethro was Keuel's son ; but there is no trace of such an error. All those methods of adjusting these accounts must therefore be abandoned which maintain the identity of Jethro and Hobab, in whatever way they seek (see Winer's RealwOrterbuch, s. v. Raguel) to reconcile the discrepancies; and the whole of the statements may be cleared u]) by understanding, with Von Leiigerke (A>- nuan, i, 393), Bertheau {Gesch. Isra. sec. 242), Kalisch {Exod. p. 35), and others, that Jethro and Kaguel were but different names of Moses's father-in-law, and that the son Hobab was his brother-in-law (referring *,rn in Numb, x, 29 to Kaguel, and in Judg. iv, 11 taking it in the general sense of offinis, relative by marriage). Josephus, in speaking of Kaguel, remarks once {Ant.'u, 12, 1) that he "had lothor (\o^6p, i. e. Jethro) for a surname" ('It^tyXriToc ip' liriicXjji^ia j-(,J 'Payoo)]\). " The abbreviated form of his name (Jether or Jethro, for Jethron) is enumerated by the IMidrash as the first of the seven (or, according to another version, eight) names by which this jNIidianitish priest was known [viz. Jether or Jethro, because he heaped up ("iTiltl) good deeds, or because ' he added a Parasha to tliie Torah ;' Cheber C^^n), because he was a friend of the Lord; Chobeb ("-HI), because he was beloved by the Lord, or because ' he loved the Torah ;' Keuel, because he was a companion (""i) to the Lord ; Petuel, because he freed himself (i::a) from idolatry]. Indeed, Jether is con- sidered his original name, to which, when he became a believer and a convert to the faith, an additional letter (1) was affixed. According to the :Midrash (I'ol. 53, 54), he had been one of Pharaoh's musicians, and had ^ot possession of Adam's staff, which had belonged to Jo- seph ; but he was driven from Egx'pt because he opposed the decree for drowning the Israelitish infants" (Kitto). See Hobab; Raguel.