Home > Torah - Exodus Stories in the Quran
The Bible tells the story that Moses meets his wife while fleeing from Egypt. Moses meets the seven daughters of Reuel (also called Jethro), the priest of Midian, at a well. He defends them from shepherds and waters their flocks. Reuel, in gratitude for Moses's help, invites him to his home and gives him his daughter, Zipporah, in marriage. The agreement is a direct gift, with no mention of a required work period.
Exodus 2:15–22: When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock. When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”
The Quran says that Moses encounters two women at the well. The father of the two women offers one of his daughters in marriage, but on the condition that Moses works for him for a period of eight or ten years as a condition of marriage.
Surah 28:23-28: And when he arrived at the waters of Median, he found there a crowd of people drawing water, and he noticed two women waiting on the side. He said, “What is the matter with you?” They said, “We cannot draw water until the shepherds depart, and our father is a very old man.”
So he drew water for them, and then withdrew to the shade, and said, “My Lord, I am in dire need of whatever good you might send down to me.”
Then, one of the two women approached him, walking bashfully. She said, “My father is calling you, to reward you for drawing water for us.” And when he came to him, and told him the story, he said, “Do not fear, you have escaped from the wrongdoing people.”
One of the two women said, “Father, hire him; the best employee for you is the strong and trustworthy.”
He said, “I want to marry you to one of these two daughters of mine, provided you work for me for eight years. But if you complete ten, that is up to you. I do not intend to impose any hardship on you. You will find me, God willing, one of the righteous.”
He said, “Let this be an agreement between you and me. Whichever of the two terms I fulfill, there shall be no reprisal against me; and God is witness over what we say.”
The concept of a man arriving at a well, watering the flock, and then being forced into a multi-year labor contract to secure a bride is the defining "Type Scene" of Jacob, not Moses. The Quran imports the Jacob/Laban legal arrangement into the Moses/Jethro encounter.
The story of Jacob in Genesis 29, specifically centers on two daughters—Leah and Rachel. By reducing Moses’s future in-laws to two, the Quranic author aligns the Moses narrative with the specific family structure of the Jacob narrative.
The Quranic version functions as a "remix." It takes the setting of Moses (Midian) but populates it with the characters (two daughters) and the legal plot (the labor contract) of Jacob. This is a classic example of an oral tradition losing the specific distinctions between historical figures over time. The Quran is not an accurate historical record.