Previous Life
According to the Talmud, Jethro together with Balaam and Job was consulted by Pharaoh as to the means for exterminating the children of Israel; and as he dissuaded Pharaoh from his design, he was recompensed in that his descendants, the Rechabites, sat with the Sanhedrin in the Temple (Talmud Sanhedrin. 106a; Ex. R. i. 12; comp. I Chron. ii. 55). In Exodus Rabba 27.5 it is said that Jethro and Amalek were consulted by Pharaoh, and that both advised him to throw the male children into the river; but, seeing that Amalek was excluded from both this and the future life (comp. Ex. xvii. 14), Jethro repented. Some commentators maintain that when Pharaoh asked his advisors about how to go about outsmarting/exterminating Israel, Jethro promptly fled the scene while Job remained silent and Balaam suggested to enslave them.
R. Joshua and R. Eleazar ha-Moda'i disagree as to Jethro's position in Midian: according to one, the words kohen Midyan mean that he was the "priest Midian"; according to the other, "prince Midian" (Mek. l.c.; Exodus Rabba 27.2). The opinion that Jethro was a priest is met with in Exodus Rabba 1.35 and in Tan., Yitro, 5.
It is further said (Exodus Rabba l.c.) that Jethro, having remarked that the worship of an idol was foolish, abandoned it. The Midianites therefore excommunicated him, and none would keep his flocks; so that his daughters were compelled to tend them and were ill-treated by the shepherds. This, however, is in conflict with another statement, to the effect that Jethro gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses on condition that their first son should be brought up in the worship of idols, and that Moses swore to respect this condition (Mek. l.c.; Yalk., Ex. 169).
Whether Jethro went to the wilderness before or after the Torah was given, and consequently what it was that induced him to go to the wilderness, are disputed points among the ancient rabbis (Zeb. 116a; Yer. Meg. i. 11; Mek. l.c.). According to some, it was the giving of the Torah; according to others, the crossing of the Red Sea dry-shod, or the falling of the manna.
Read more about this topic: Jethro In Rabbinic Literature
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