A Strange Land

Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife ... and her two sons, of whom the name of one was  Gershom,  for he had declared: I was a foreigner in a strange  land,  and the name of  the other,  Eliezer: for the God of my father is my help and  delivered  me  from  the  sword  of  Pharaoh.                                                         Exodus 18:2-4

            My father noted the apparent irony in Moses’ choice of name for his first-born son: the Israelites in Egypt were certainly in a much more difficult situation than Moses in Midian. Moses lived freely in Midian, while his brethren in Egypt were enslaved and forced to perform hard labor.

            Moses' choice of name for his first born son indicates his greatness. Moses expressed his feeling that his place was not in the comfort and security of Midian, rather with his fellow Israelites who suffered in the servitude and suffering in Egypt.

            Concerning the naming of Moses' first son, the verse tells us "he declared," while a similar phrase is absent from the naming of Moses' second son. My father explained that "he declared" indicates that Moses announced publicly his feeling of being out of place in Midian, and his desire/need to join his fellow Israelites. However, he refrained from public announcement of his salvation from the sword of Pharaoh, both for practical and ideological reasons. Moses did not want to risk a report reaching Pharaoh that he was in Midian, lest Pharaoh pursue him there. Equally, Moses, the humblest of men [Numbers 12:3], did not want to brag that he had merited a miraculous salvation.

            The reason for Moses’ choice of name for his first born son raises questions:

It would seem more appropriate to have named the son “Ger-po,” “a stranger here,” rather than Ger-shom, which implies “I was a stranger there.”

Why did Moses choose the past tense “I was a stranger …,” since he was still in the “strange land” of Midian?

            My father suggested that it is Egypt, rather than Midian, which Moses called “a strange land.” Despite having been raised as an Egyptian prince, and having been free of the Egyptian subjugation of Israel, Moses’ empathy with the suffering of his fellow Israelites brought Moses to the realization that he was a stranger in the land of his birth.

            Perhaps we can see in this explanation of Moses’ words a precursor of his burning desire to enter the land of Israel, as he pleaded, with God towards the end of his life [Deuteronomy 3:23-25]. 

            We can also see this as rectification of Moses “failure to admit to his Land.”  [Moses allowed the daughters of Yitro to refer to him as “an Egyptian man.” (Exodus 2:19) See Midrash Devarim Rabba 2:8]