Exodus 2:22 Commentary: Gershom: A Name of Exile and Hope

Moses has just fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian taskmaster. He arrives in Midian, a region southeast of the Sinai Peninsula, and is taken in by Reuel (also called Jethro), a priest who worships the same God as Abraham's family. The daughters of Reuel report Moses' help at the well, and he is invited to stay. He marries Zipporah and begins a new life as a shepherd.

But Moses does not forget where he came from. When his first son is born, he names him Gershom, 'a sojourner there.' The words echo a deep tension. Midian gives him safety, a wife, work. Yet Moses cannot call it home. The word nokhrîyāh (H5237) for 'foreign' appears in the feminine singular, describing the land: it is utterly not his own. This is not about Egypt; it is about every land except the one God promised to Abraham. As Calvin notes, Moses saw himself as a stranger both in Egypt and in Midian, until he should inherit the true home God had pledged.

The surrounding narrative underscores the point. Verses 23, 25 record that 'the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried.' God heard, remembered his covenant, and 'understood.' Moses may not have known that cry was rising yet; but his naming of Gershom aligns him with that suffering people. As Exodus 22:21 later commands Israel, 'You shall not wrong an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.' Moses is learning the identity of the sojourner from the inside.

Cross-references like I Chronicles 29:15, 'We are strangers before you and foreigners, as all our fathers were', show that this sense of pilgrimage became a defining theme for Israel. Moses, by naming his son in this way, was already speaking the language of faith that runs through the whole canon.

The consulted sources note no significant variant readings for the Hebrew text of Exodus 2:22 itself. Clarke and Keil and Delitzsch observe that some ancient versions (the Vulgate, the Complutensian Septuagint, the Syriac and the Coptic) add the birth of Moses' second son Eliezer after this verse, with its explanation from Exodus 18:4. This addition is not present in any known Hebrew manuscript and is widely regarded as a later interpolation. The traditional Hebrew text as reflected in the Masoretic tradition stands as the basis for all modern translations.

This verse has been read across Christian tradition as a model for the believer's confession of being a stranger in the world. Early church writers such as Augustine saw in it a foreshadowing of the Christian pilgrimage: believers are citizens of heaven, sojourning on earth. The same theme appears in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the patriarchs confess they are 'strangers and exiles on the earth' (Hebrews 11:13). In later centuries, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress gave narrative form to this sense of displacement; the name Gershom itself has been used in hymns that speak of heaven as the true home. Jewish tradition remembers Gershom as the firstborn of Moses, and the verse is read as a reminder that even in the wilderness of Midian, the hope of redemption remained alive.

Three-point outline

1. A name that advertises exile. Gershom literally means 'a sojourner there.' Moses does not hide his displacement. He puts it on his son's birth certificate. What does it mean to own our alienation, from the world, from sin, from the way things ought to be, rather than pretend we are at home?
2. A name that holds onto promise. Calvin insists this was not a name of complaint. By calling his son Gershom, Moses reminded himself and everyone around him that Midian was not the end. God's covenant with Abraham was still in effect. Naming our exile can be a way of claiming the promise that a better country exists.
3. A name that prepares for deliverance. The very next verses show God turning his attention to Israel's cry. Moses, living with the name Gershom, was being shaped into the man who would lead the exodus. Displacement is often God's training ground for service.

Five-point outline

1. Context of the naming. Moses is newly married, employed, settled. Yet he does not let comfort erase his true identity.
2. Etymology of Gershom. 'Sojourner there', the name is a sentence of self-description.
3. The emotional register. Not bitterness, but honest testimony. Keil and Delitzsch say it expressed 'the feeling of exile, which had not passed into despair.'
4. The theological claim. Moses asserts that his real home is elsewhere. He is aligning himself with the patriarchs, who were also strangers in the land of promise.
5. The trajectory of hope. Gershom is not the last word. Eliezer will follow: 'My father's God was my help.' The names of Moses' sons map his journey from exile to deliverance.

Illustration hooks

• A family that moved for work and never quite fits in. They name their first child in a way that reminds them of the place they left behind, and the place they are still seeking.
• An immigrant who hangs a map of the old country in the living room. Not to mourn, but to remember that home is not just where the furniture is.
• Someone in a long season of waiting, who marks time not by the calendar but by a recurring practice, a prayer, a journal, a name, that says 'I am not home yet.'

Questions your congregation is asking

• How do I keep from putting down roots too deep in a world that is passing away?
• Does feeling like a foreigner mean I am ungrateful for what God has given me today?
• How would my life look different if I named my displacement, honestly, without bitterness, and let that name shape my hope?

This verse catches Moses at a turning point. He has a new family, a steady job, and a father-in-law who treats him well. Everything says 'settle in.' But the name he gives his son says 'no, I am still waiting for something else.' Read the verse aloud together. Notice the emotion in the words 'I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.' What do you hear, resignation? Faith? Both?

Discussion questions

1. Why do you think Moses chose to name his son Gershom, literally 'a sojourner there', instead of a name that celebrated his new life in Midian?
2. Look at the Hebrew word ger (H1616). It means a temporary inhabitant lacking inherited rights. How does that definition help you understand what Moses was feeling?
3. Calvin says this was not a complaint but a 'memorial' to keep hope alive. Gill calls it thankfulness. Do you agree? Could it be both?
4. Read Exodus 2:23, 25 as a unit. How does God's response to Israel's suffering connect with Moses' naming of his son?
5. Where in your own life do you feel like a sojourner, at work, in your neighbourhood, even among Christians who seem more settled than you are?
6. What would it look like for you to 'name' your own sense of displacement, honestly but with hope, in front of God and others?
7. Moses later names his second son Eliezer, 'God is help.' How do these two names together tell a story of growth in faith?