longer with Moses, people would have declared that he had
absconded with all these things and fled to Moses to share it with
him, and that would have been a blot on his fair name and that of
Moses. Jethro had furthermore made many debts during the year in
which he came to Moses, for, owing to the hail God had sent upon
Egypt before the exodus of Israel, a great famine had arisen in
Jethro's home too, and he had found himself obliged to lend money
for the support of the poor. If he were not now to return to his
home, people would say that he had run away in order to evade his
creditors, and such talk concerning a man of piety would have
been desecration of the Divine Name. So he said to Moses: "There
are people who have a fatherland, but no property there; there are
also property-holders who have no family; but I have a fatherland,
and have property there as well as a family; hence I desire to return
to my fatherland, my property, and my family." But Moses would
not yield so soon, and said to his father-in-law: "If thou dost not
accompany us as a favor, I will command thee to do so, that the
Israelites might not say thou hadst been converted to our religion
only in the expectation of receiving a share in the promised land,
but hadst returned to thy home when thou didst discover that
proselytes have no claim on property in the Holy Land. Through
thy refusal to move with us, thou wilt give the heathens an
opportunity to say that the Jews do not accept proselytes, since
they did not accept even their own king's father-in-law, but
allowed him to return to his own land. Thy refusal will injure the
glory of God, for the heathens will keep away from the true faith.
But if thou wilt wander with us, I assure thee that they seed shall
share with us the Temple, the Torah, and the future reward of the
pious. How canst thou, moreover, who hast seen all the miracles of
God wrought for us during the march through the desert; who wert