What Does Exodus 18:5 Mean?

And Jethro said, "Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people." Jethro's blessing formula (Baruch YHWH, blessed be the LORD) is one of the Old Testament's most significant inter-faith covenant confessions: a Midianite priest blessing the covenant God of Israel by name. "Blessed be the LORD" is Israel's own blessing vocabulary (Psalm 31:21; 68:19; 72:18) here placed on the lips of a Midianite. The blessing formula is the priest of Midian's spontaneous act of worship directed toward Israel's God.

"Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods" (ki gadol YHWH mikol ha'elohim) is the Exodus's first explicit theological confession from a non-Israelite: Jethro the Midianite priest confesses YHWH's supremacy over the divine assembly. The "now I know" grounds the confession in the Exodus event: the events Moses narrated (verse 8) are the evidence base for the theological conclusion (verse 11). Jethro's confession is not abstract monotheism but evidence-based acknowledgment: having heard what YHWH did to Egypt's gods (the plagues were anti-divine as well as anti-Pharaoh), Jethro concludes YHWH is greater.

"Because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people": the "arrogance" (zud, to boil/act presumptuously) of the Egyptians is the theological explanation for YHWH's decisive action. Egypt's pride (the Pharaoh who said "who is YHWH that I should obey him?", Exodus 5:2) provoked the divine response that destroyed Egypt's army. YHWH is greater than all gods because he alone demolishes the most powerful empire's arrogance with an unarmed nation's liberation. Jethro's theology is practical: YHWH proved his supremacy through what he actually did.