The Quran

Preface

وَلَمّا وَرَدَ ماءَ مَديَنَ وَجَدَ عَلَيهِ أُمَّةً مِنَ النّاسِ يَسقونَ وَوَجَدَ مِن دونِهِمُ امرَأَتَينِ تَذودانِ ۖ قالَ ما خَطبُكُما ۖ قالَتا لا نَسقي حَتّىٰ يُصدِرَ الرِّعاءُ ۖ وَأَبونا شَيخٌ كَبيرٌ

Yusuf Ali

And when he arrived at the watering (place) in Madyan,¹ he found there a group of men watering (their flocks), and besides them he found two women who were keeping back (their flocks). He said: “What is the matter with you?” They said: “We cannot water (our flocks) until the shepherds take back (their flocks): And our father is a very old man.”²

The first thing that a wanderer in a desert would make for would be an oasis where he could get water from a spring or well, the shade of trees against the scorching sun, and some human company. The Midianite watering place was probably a deep well, as surface springs are rare in sandy desert, where the water level is low, unless there was a hill from which issued a spring.
Here is a pretty little idyll, told in the fewest and most beautiful words possible. Moses arrives, at an oasis in the desert, weary and travel-worn, with his mind full of anxiety and uncertainty owing to his recent experiences in Egypt. He was thirsty and would naturally seek water. At the well or spring he found shepherds (or perhaps goat-herds) watering their flocks. As a stranger it was not for him to thrust himself among them. He waited under the shade of a tree until they should finish. He noticed two damsels, also waiting, with their flocks, which they had come to water. His chivalry was roused. He went at once among the goatherds, made a place for the flocks of the damsels, gave them water, and then resumed his place in the shade. They were modest maidens, and had given him in three Arabic words the key of the whole situation. Abuna shaykhun kabir our father is very old man, and therefore cannot come to water the flocks; we therefore do the work; we could not very well trust ourselves among these men.'