And Moses went, and returned, &c.— Thus commissioned by the Almighty, Moses determines immediately to enter upon his office: and, therefore, without informing Jethro of his main design, as that, perhaps, might have retarded it; he urges his desire to go and see whether his brethren (that is, most probably, not the Israelites in general, but those of his own family) were yet alive: to which Jethro readily consents. Moses in this instance, says Poole, has given us a rare example of piety and prudence, in that he took care to avoid all occasions and temptations to disobedience to the Divine commands; as well as of a singular modesty and humility, in that such glorious and familiar converse with God, and the high commission with which he had honoured him, made him neither forget the civility and duty which he owed to his father, nor break out into any public and vain-glorious ostentation of such a privilege.
Exodus 4:19. And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian— This is supposed to have been a distinct appearance, different from that mentioned in the preceding chapter: for that was in Horeb, this in Midian; and it is certain, even from this chapter, that after the first grand appearance, the Lord frequently made himself manifest to Moses. There is something very remarkable in the latter words of this verse, which are applied to another, and a greater than Moses; see Matthew 2:20 as the departure of Moses, with his wife and children, strongly pictures to us that of Joseph and Mary with the holy child Jesus. When it is said, Exodus 4:20 that Moses set them upon an ass, the singular here is put, and must be understood for the plural.