Zipporah at the inn
Encyclopedia
Zipporah at the inn is the name given to an episode alluded to in three verses of Exodus. It is one of the more unusual, curious, and much-debated passages of the Pentateuch.
The verses in question are Exodus 4:24–26, the context is Moses
and his wife Zipporah
reaching an inn on their way from Midian to Egypt to announce the plagues
to the Pharaoh:
Leningrad Codex
text:
Translation:
New Revised Standard Version
translation
The standard interpretation of the passage is that Yahweh wants to kill Moses for neglecting the rite of circumcision
of his son. Zipporah averts disaster by reacting quickly and hastily performing the rite, thus saving her husband from Yahweh's anger.
The Hebrew for “bridegroom of blood” written as “hatan dimim,” is derived from a Semitic root verb which means “perform marriage.” In the Arabic language
this phrase is linked to Hebrew, but means “perform circumcision.” In ancient Akkadian language
related to Arabic and Aramaic/Hebrew, this phrase means “to protect.”
Zipporah was a Midian woman. Midian is present day Saudi Arabia
where Arabic is spoken. However, in Zipporah‘s day, Akkadian was spoken. In the ancient Akkadian language, casting the foreskin meant “to protect.” So “You are a bridegroom of blood,” can also mean, “This blood will protect you.”
s multiple times, without ever identifying which of the three individuals of Moses, Yahweh (the LORD), and Moses and Zipporah's son, is being referred to by each instance. In particular, it is unclear whose feet, Yahweh's, Moses' or her son's, Zipporah touches with the foreskin, and the meaning of "bloody bridegroom".
Because of these difficulties, many biblical scholars consider the passage fragmentary. The ambiguous or fragmentary nature of the verses leave much room for extrapolation, and rabbinical scholarship has provided a number of explanations. Specifically, the Targum Neophyti, a midrash
ic translation
of the Pentateuch into Aramaic, expands Zipporah's enigmatic "you are truly a bridegroom of blood" to "How beloved is the blood that has delivered this bridegroom from the hand of the Angel of Death."
While the passage is frequently interpreted as referring to Gershom
, Moses' firstborn, being circumcised, the Midrash
actually states that the passage was, at that time, considered instead to refer to Eliezer
, Moses' other son.
The question on why Moses neglected to have his son circumcised and thus incurred the wrath of Yahweh was debated in classical Jewish scholarship.
Rabbi El'azar ha-Moda'i said that Jethro had placed an additional condition on the marriage between his daughter and Moses - that the firstborn son of Jethro would be given over to idolatry and thus explaining why Moses was viewed negatively by Yahweh.
One Midrashic interpretation is that, while Yahweh allowed Moses to put off circumcising his son until they reached Egypt, rather than weaken him before the journey, Moses did not hasten to perform the task as soon as possible after he had arrived.
Rabbinical commentators have asked how Zipporah knew that the act of circumcising her son would save her husband. A common explanation is that the angel of God (or one of two angels, Af and Hemah, the personifications of anger and fury), in the shape of a serpent, had swallowed up Moses up to but not including his genitals. Zipporah immediately understood that the threat was related to circumcision, by a "psychoanalytic link" between Moses' penis and his son's, the ambiguous use of pronouns taken by Haberman (2003) as indicating the fundamental identity of the deity, her husband and her son in the woman's subconscious.
Hyam Maccoby
, in The Sacred Executioner, interprets the passage as meaning that when God met Moses he (Moses) tried to kill him (Moses' son). On this view the story is an aetiological myth about the origin of circumcision as a substitute for human sacrifice.
Kugel (1998) suggests that the point of the episode is the explanation of the expression "bridegroom of blood" , apparently current in biblical times. The story would seem to illustrate that the phrase does not imply that a bridegroom should or may be circumcised at the time of his marriage, but that Moses by being bloodied by the foreskin of his son became a "bridegroom of blood" to Zipporah. The story has also been interpreted as emphasizing the point that the circumcision must be performed exactly at the prescribed time, as a delay was not granted even to Moses.
(God
) himself performing the attack on Moses, other texts make the attacker an "angel of the Lord".
The version in the Book of Jubilees (2nd century BC) is attributing the attack to Prince Mastema
, a title that was another name for Satan
:
The Septuagint version subtly alters the text by translating the Tetragrammaton
not as "the lord" but as "the angel of the lord". "Angel" is the translation throughout the Septuagint of the Hebrew "mal'ak", the term for the manifestation of Yahweh to humanity. (It is the mal'ak that speaks to Moses from the burning bush).
The verses in question are Exodus 4:24–26, the context is Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
and his wife Zipporah
Zipporah
Zipporah or Tzipora is mentioned in the Book of Exodus as the wife of Moses, and the daughter of Reuel/Jethro, the priest or prince of Midian...
reaching an inn on their way from Midian to Egypt to announce the plagues
Plagues of Egypt
The Plagues of Egypt , also called the Ten Plagues or the Biblical Plagues, were ten calamities that, according to the biblical Book of Exodus, Israel's God, Yahweh, inflicted upon Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery. Pharaoh capitulated after the tenth...
to the Pharaoh:
Leningrad Codex
Leningrad Codex
The Leningrad Codex is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the masoretic text and Tiberian vocalization. It is dated AD 1008 according to its colophon...
text:
- 24.
- 25.
- 26.
Translation:
- 24. And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him.
- 25. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.
- 26. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.
New Revised Standard Version
New Revised Standard Version
The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible is an English translation of the Bible released in 1989 in the USA. It is a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version .There are three editions of the NRSV:...
translation
- On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the LORDYahwehYahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
met him and tried to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin, and touched his feet with it, and said, "Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!" So he let him alone. It was then she said, "A bridegroom of blood by circumcision."
The standard interpretation of the passage is that Yahweh wants to kill Moses for neglecting the rite of circumcision
Circumcision in the Bible
Religious male circumcision generally occurs shortly after birth, during childhood or around puberty as part of a rite of passage. Circumcision is most prevalent in Muslim countries and Israel, and is most prevalent in the Jewish and Muslim faiths, although also common in the United States, the...
of his son. Zipporah averts disaster by reacting quickly and hastily performing the rite, thus saving her husband from Yahweh's anger.
Difference in translation
In Hebrew, the word “feet” is used as an euphemism for the word “genitals.” Very few translators chose to use the word “genitals” in their interpretation, so it's not clear what Zipporah touched with the bloody foreskin.The Hebrew for “bridegroom of blood” written as “hatan dimim,” is derived from a Semitic root verb which means “perform marriage.” In the Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
this phrase is linked to Hebrew, but means “perform circumcision.” In ancient Akkadian language
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
related to Arabic and Aramaic/Hebrew, this phrase means “to protect.”
Zipporah was a Midian woman. Midian is present day Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
where Arabic is spoken. However, in Zipporah‘s day, Akkadian was spoken. In the ancient Akkadian language, casting the foreskin meant “to protect.” So “You are a bridegroom of blood,” can also mean, “This blood will protect you.”
Various interpretations
The details of the passage are unclear and subject to debate. One problem is that the text uses pronounPronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s multiple times, without ever identifying which of the three individuals of Moses, Yahweh (the LORD), and Moses and Zipporah's son, is being referred to by each instance. In particular, it is unclear whose feet, Yahweh's, Moses' or her son's, Zipporah touches with the foreskin, and the meaning of "bloody bridegroom".
Because of these difficulties, many biblical scholars consider the passage fragmentary. The ambiguous or fragmentary nature of the verses leave much room for extrapolation, and rabbinical scholarship has provided a number of explanations. Specifically, the Targum Neophyti, a midrash
Midrash
The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
ic translation
Targum
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...
of the Pentateuch into Aramaic, expands Zipporah's enigmatic "you are truly a bridegroom of blood" to "How beloved is the blood that has delivered this bridegroom from the hand of the Angel of Death."
While the passage is frequently interpreted as referring to Gershom
Gershom
According to the Bible, Gershom was the firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah. The name appears to mean a sojourner there , which the text argues was a reference to Moses' flight from Egypt; biblical scholars regard the name as being essentially the same as Gershon, and it is Gershom rather than...
, Moses' firstborn, being circumcised, the Midrash
Midrash
The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
actually states that the passage was, at that time, considered instead to refer to Eliezer
Eliezer
For the mathematician and Tamil activist see C.J. Eliezer; for the AI researcher and writer on rationality see Eliezer Yudkowsky; for the Levite priest of the Hebrew Bible, see Eleazar...
, Moses' other son.
The question on why Moses neglected to have his son circumcised and thus incurred the wrath of Yahweh was debated in classical Jewish scholarship.
Rabbi El'azar ha-Moda'i said that Jethro had placed an additional condition on the marriage between his daughter and Moses - that the firstborn son of Jethro would be given over to idolatry and thus explaining why Moses was viewed negatively by Yahweh.
One Midrashic interpretation is that, while Yahweh allowed Moses to put off circumcising his son until they reached Egypt, rather than weaken him before the journey, Moses did not hasten to perform the task as soon as possible after he had arrived.
Rabbinical commentators have asked how Zipporah knew that the act of circumcising her son would save her husband. A common explanation is that the angel of God (or one of two angels, Af and Hemah, the personifications of anger and fury), in the shape of a serpent, had swallowed up Moses up to but not including his genitals. Zipporah immediately understood that the threat was related to circumcision, by a "psychoanalytic link" between Moses' penis and his son's, the ambiguous use of pronouns taken by Haberman (2003) as indicating the fundamental identity of the deity, her husband and her son in the woman's subconscious.
Hyam Maccoby
Hyam Maccoby
Hyam Maccoby was a British Jewish scholar and dramatist specializing in the study of the Jewish and Christian religious tradition. His grandfather and namesake was Rabbi Hyam Maccoby , better known as the "Kamenitzer Maggid," a passionate religious Zionist and advocate of vegetarianism and animal...
, in The Sacred Executioner, interprets the passage as meaning that when God met Moses he (Moses) tried to kill him (Moses' son). On this view the story is an aetiological myth about the origin of circumcision as a substitute for human sacrifice.
Kugel (1998) suggests that the point of the episode is the explanation of the expression "bridegroom of blood" , apparently current in biblical times. The story would seem to illustrate that the phrase does not imply that a bridegroom should or may be circumcised at the time of his marriage, but that Moses by being bloodied by the foreskin of his son became a "bridegroom of blood" to Zipporah. The story has also been interpreted as emphasizing the point that the circumcision must be performed exactly at the prescribed time, as a delay was not granted even to Moses.
Identity of the attacker
While Exodus is unambiguous about YahwehYahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
(God
God in Judaism
The conception of God in Judaism is strictly monotheistic. God is an absolute one indivisible incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. Jewish tradition teaches that the true aspect of God is incomprehensible and unknowable, and that it is only God's revealed aspect that...
) himself performing the attack on Moses, other texts make the attacker an "angel of the Lord".
The version in the Book of Jubilees (2nd century BC) is attributing the attack to Prince Mastema
Mastema
Mastema an angel who persecutes evil in Hebrew folklore. He carries out punishments for God. He tempts humans and tests their faith. He asked God to permit him to have demons as his subordinates. In the Zadokite Fragments and the Dead Sea Scrolls, he is the angel of disaster, the father of all...
, a title that was another name for Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
:
- ... and what Prince Mastema desired to do with you when you returned to Egypt, on the way when you met him at the shelter. Did he not desire to kill you with all of his might and save the Egyptians from your hand because he saw that you were sent to execute judgment and vengeance upon the Egyptians? And I delivered you from his hand and you did the signs and wonders which you were sent to perform in Egypt. - Jubilees 48:2-4
The Septuagint version subtly alters the text by translating the Tetragrammaton
Tetragrammaton
The term Tetragrammaton refers to the name of the God of Israel YHWH used in the Hebrew Bible.-Hebrew Bible:...
not as "the lord" but as "the angel of the lord". "Angel" is the translation throughout the Septuagint of the Hebrew "mal'ak", the term for the manifestation of Yahweh to humanity. (It is the mal'ak that speaks to Moses from the burning bush).