KEpt the flock] Moses (from his childhood) had been the flock] Moses (from his childhood) had been a Courtier about fourty yeares, and now he cometh downe to the condition of a shepheard, and continueth in it fourty yeares more; and for a third fourtie yeares, he had a more honorable, and lesse quiet condition, being a politique Pastour and Governour of the nation of the Israelites. of Jethro] See Annotations on Chap. 2. vers. 16. and Annotations on vers. 18. his father in law] The word Chothen signifieth not a father in law alone, but generally a kinsman; yet here it is to be contracted from the generall acception, to the particular relation, betwixt Jethro and Moses, upon the marriage of Zipporah. backside of the desart] Proceeding further and further, in the desart, to find out fresh pastures for his flocks: the Hebrew Scholiast thinks the name of the place to be the further desart. mountaine of God] Which was not so called, untill God made especiall choyce of it, for the publication of his law, Exodus 19:11. from that it was called the mountaine of God: and it was named also Sanai, from the store of Bramble bushes in that place, for Seneh, in Hebrew, is such a Bush: it was called likewise Horeb, from the drynesse, and solitude of the place; yet might this hill like Pernassus have two ops, the one called Sinai, the other Horeb.