Yitro, a Father in Law's Advice

(6) He sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you, with your wife and her two sons.”

אני חתנך יתרו וגו I, THY FATHER-IN-LAW, JETHRO etc. — If you will not come out for my own sake, come out for the sake of your wife; and if you will not come out for your wife’s sake, come out for the sake of your two sons (Mekhilta).

(14) But when Moses’ father-in-law saw how much he had to do for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing to the people? Why do you act alone, while all the people stand about you from morning until evening?”

אשר הוא עושה לעם, “what he was doing to the people.” They were making one another impatient. On the one hand, the common people were forced to stand in line most of the day waiting for their turn. On the other hand, Moses was becoming more and more weary having to deal with so many disputes.

ויהי ממחרת AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE MORROW — This was really the day after the Day of Atonement: what does "macharat, tomorrow" mean? It means the morrow after he (Moses) descended from the Mount Sinai, and you must admit that it is impossible to say that this was any other day but the morrow after the Day of Atonement because, before the giving of the Torah, one could not say, (v. 16) “and I do make them know the statutes... Moses did not sit down to judge the people, since immediately after the Torah was given he ascended the mountain and descended only on the seventeenth of Tammuz when he broke the tablets. On the next day he again ascended the mountain early in the morning and stayed there eighty days, descending on the Day of Atonement. Consequently this section is not written in its chronological order, for this paragraph commencing with ויהי ממחרת and ending with “Moses let his father-in-law go and he (Jethro) went his way into his own land” was not said before the second year after the Exodus....in the account of Israel’s journey through the wilderness beneath their banners. Forsake us not, I pray thee”. Now if this incident happened before the giving of the Torahwhere do we find it related that he returned?.. in Numbers it does not mention Jethro at all but Hobab, and that the latter was not Jethro but the son of Jethro, then I reply that Hobab is identical with Jethro and not his son, because it is written, (Judges 4:11) “of the sons of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses”.

למען יאריכון ימיך, "so that your days will be long, etc." The expression יאריכון implies that this will be a natural consequence; it is not a reward by G'd. Had it been intended as a reward, The Torah would have had to write something like: "I will lengthen your life, etc." The Torah may have taught us that the miraculous feature which attends performance of honouring father and mother is that persons doing so will enjoy long life. There are several commandments which are associated with miraculous phenomena; in all such cases this is not part of the reward for performing them.