Anyone even a little familiar with the Bible will have heard the story of how the baby Moses was saved from the murderous designs of an unnamed Egyptian pharaoh. Three heroines are at the center of the tale—Moses’ mother Jochabed, his older sister Miriam, and the pharaoh’s daughter. But in a passage so short it is often skipped over, the Bible tells of a second event in which it appears that Zipporah, Moses’ Midianite wife, also saves Moses’ life.
Did Moses Defend Zipporah Against Bullying Shepherds?
According to the biblical telling, while still a prince in Egypt Moses killed an Egyptian taskmaster whom he witnessed beating a Hebrew slave. Upon discovering that the murder was not a secret, Moses fled Egypt to Midian, an area directly west of the Red Sea in the Sinai Peninsula. The place was named after one of Abraham’s sons, whose descendants had settled there four centuries prior.
Moses first encounters Zipporah at a well as she, along with her six sisters, are trying to water their father’s flock. Other shepherds are interfering, but Moses rises to their defense. This leads to Moses’ meeting Zipporah’s father. He is called both Jethro and Reuel in the text, and entitled “the Priest of Midian.” Moses marries Zipporah, and ends up spending forty years in Midian as a part of this shepherding, priestly family.
Did Zipporah Know about Moses’ Hebrew Background?
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Sign up to our Free Weekly NewsletterInterpreters often note that Zipporah and her sisters introduce Moses to their father as “an Egyptian,” and there is no evidence in the text that Moses ever corrected them. After his famous burning bush experience in which God calls him to return to Egypt to demand the release of the enslaved Hebrews, Moses tells Jethro that he wants to return to Egypt to “see if his brothers are still alive.” This was hardly his true reason for leaving, and Moses’ explanation allows readers to wonder whether or not Moses had fully embraced his Hebrew identity.
Did Zipporah Rescue Moses from a Divine Attack?
After informing Jethro of his intention to return to Egypt, the Bible implies in Exodus chapter four that Moses began the journey accompanied by Zipporah and their two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. Yet, later in chapter 18 it appears that Zipporah and the boys had stayed in Midian. This textual difficulty aside, the narrative relates that, on their way to Egypt the family stopped to lodge for a night. Strangely, God appears on the scene with an intent to kill, but Zipporah is able to deflect the attempt by circumcising her son.
While modern English translations tend to remove it, there is ambiguity in the Hebrew text regarding the identity of God’s target in this scene. The Hebrew text allows for its being either Moses or one of the couple’s sons. Either way, for some reason Moses takes no active role in this event. The reader assumes he is either incapable or unwilling to act.
Why Did Zipporah Use Circumcision?
Though various cultures in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean world practiced circumcision, the Bible presents it as a unique sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham. As heirs of the covenant, all male descendants of Abraham were to be circumcised. Interpreters suggest that Zipporah’s use of circumcision to deflect God’s attack draws on this biblical aspect of the practice’s significance.
Perhaps the text intends for the reader to understand the fact that Moses’ son had not yet been circumcised as evidence of Moses’ hesitation to fully embrace his Hebrew identity. God’s anger toward him is, thus, abated when God sees that the procedure has been completed.
What Was Zipporah’s Ethnicity?
A straightforward reading of the Bible suggests that Moses married at least two women, neither of whom was Israelite. Zipporah is identified as a Midianite, while Moses’s other wife, who is left unnamed, is described as Cushite. The Kingdom of Cush is a relatively active presence in biblical history whose realm lay to the south of Egypt—quite far from Zipporah’s homeland in Midian. However, a tradition arose in Judaism associating Zipporah with her Cushite counterpart.
Why Is Zipporah’s Ethnicity Unclear?
Some ambiguous elements in the Moses saga have made it difficult for interpreters to understand his relationship with Zipporah, and leave unanswered questions about her background. One such element regards Moses’s wholesale slaughter of “the Midianites” described in the biblical book of Numbers. Moses’ extreme hostility toward Midian in this account is difficult to square with his familial ties to the group. By contrast, the Cushites do not have direct conflict with Israel in the Bible, and later defend the Kingdom of Judah against the Assyrians. Another ambiguous element is the fact that Moses’ Cushite wife is left unnamed in the text.
Further questions arise due to the context of the Cushite woman’s presence in the text. The text says that Moses’ older brother and sister had a dispute with him regarding his Cushite wife. Yet, the text suggests the dispute was about Moses’ prophetic status. The nature of their objection to his wife is left unclear.
