And Moses was content to dwell with the man,.... After he had been called and brought into the house, and had had some refreshment, and after some conversation had passed between them, and perhaps after some days' stay in Reuel's house; Reuel having observed his disposition and behaviour, and being delighted therewith, proposed to him to take up his residence with him, with which motion Moses was well pleased, and accepted of it:
and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter; to be his wife. It is not to be supposed that this was done directly; though both Philo u and Josephus w intimate as if it was done at first meeting together; but it is not likely that Reuel would dispose of his daughter so suddenly to a stranger, though he might at once entertain an high opinion of him; nor would Moses marry a woman directly he had so slender an acquaintance with, so little knowledge of her disposition, endowments of mind and religion. The Targum of Jonathan says it was at the end of ten years; and indeed forty years after this a son of his seems to have been young, having not till then been circumcised, Exodus 4:22. The author of the Life of Moses says x, that he was seventy seven years of age when he married Zipporah, which was but three years before he returned to Egypt. This circumstance of Moses's marrying Reuel's daughter is confirmed by Artapanus y an Heathen historian; and also by Demetrius z, and expressly calls her Sapphora, who he says was a daughter of Jother or Jethro; and likewise by Ezekiel the tragedian a.
u De Vita Mosis, l. 1. p. 611. w Antiqu. l. 2. c. 11. sect. 2. x Chronicon Mosis, fol. 9. 1. y Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 9. c. 27. p. 434. z Ib. c. 29. p. 439. a lb. c. 28.