Zipporah

Zipporah

Detail from Moses Leaving to Egypt by Pietro Perugino, c. 1482. Zipporah is in blue.
Spouse(s) Moses
Children Gershom
Eliezer
Relatives Aaron (brother-in-law)
Miriam (sister-in-law)

Zipporah or Tzipora (/ˈzɪp.ər.ə/ or /zɪpˈɔːr.ə/; Hebrew: צִפוֹרָה, Modern Tsippora, Tiberian Ṣippôrā 'bird'; Greek: Σεπφώρα, Sepphōra; Arabic: صفورة‎‎, Ṣafforah) is mentioned in the Book of Exodus as the wife of Moses, and the daughter of Reuel/Jethro, the priest or prince of Midian and the spiritual founder and ancestor of the Druze.[1][2][3][4][5] In the Book of Chronicles, two of her descendants are mentioned: Shebuel, son of Gershom, and Rehabiah, son of Eliezer.[6]

Biblical references

Background

In the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible Zipporah was one of the seven daughters of Jethro, a Kenite shepherd who was a priest of Midian.[7] In Exodus 2:18 Jethro is also referred to as Reuel[8] and referred to as Hobab in the Book of Judges.[9] (Judges 4:11). (Hobab was also the name of Jethro's son as recorded in Numbers 10:29.) While the Israelites/Hebrews were captives in Egypt, Moses killed an Egyptian who was striking a Hebrew, for which offense Pharaoh sought to kill Moses. Moses therefore fled from Egypt and arrived in Midian. One day while he sat by a well, Reuel's daughters came to water their father's flocks. Other shepherds arrived and drove the girls away so they could water their own flocks first. Moses defended the girls and watered their flock.

Upon their return home their father asked them, "How is it that you have come home so early today?" The girls answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock." "Where is he then?" Reuel asked them. "Why did you leave the man? Invite him for supper to break bread." (Exodus 2:18–20).

Moses stayed and lived with the Midianite and his family. Reuel gave him his daughter Zipporah in marriage and, in due time, she gave birth to Gershom and then to Eliezer.

The Book of Numbers 12:1 calls the wife of Moses "a Cushite woman", whereas Moses's wife Zipporah is usually described as hailing from Midian.

The rhetorical question "Can the Cushite change his skin?" in Jeremiah 13:23 implies people of a markedly different skin color from the Israelites, most likely a Nubian people; also, the Septuagint uniformly translates Cush as Αἰθιοπία "Aithiopia."

Another person named Cush in the Hebrew Bible is a Benjamite who is mentioned only in Psalm 7, and is believed to be a follower of Saul.

Incident at the Inn

After all the men in Egypt who had sought his death had died, Moses returned to Egypt. Moses took his wife and sons and started his journey back to Egypt. On the road, they stayed in an inn, where a mysterious and much-debated incident that features Zipporah took place. The Bible describes that God came to kill Moses (Exodus 4:24-27). Zipporah quickly circumcised Gershom with a sharp stone and touched Moses' feet with it, saying "You are a husband of blood!" (Exodus 4:26.) Some scholars explain the reason why God came to kill Moses was because of the covenant he made with Abraham. "'He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.'" (Genesis 17:10-14)

The Exodus

After Moses succeeded in taking the Israelites out of Egypt, and won a battle against Amalek, Reuel came to the Hebrew camp in the wilderness of Sinai, bringing with him Zipporah, Gershom, and Eliezer. The Bible does not say when Zipporah and her sons rejoined Reuel/Jethro, only that after he heard of what God did for the Israelites, he brought Moses' family to him. The most common translation is that Moses sent her away, but another grammatically permissible translation is that she sent things or persons, perhaps the announcement of the victory over Amalek. The word that makes this difficult is shelucheiha, the sendings [away] of her.[10]

The Cushite reference to the wife of Moses occurs at Numbers 12.[11] In the story Aaron and Miriam harshly criticize Moses' marriage to a Cushite or Kushite woman after he returned to Egypt to set the children of Israel free. Cushites were of the ancestry of Kush, a.k.a. Nubia, in northeast Africa. The Book of Genesis identifies the nations of Africa as descendants of Ham son of Noah. The Midianites themselves were a dark-skinned people often called Kushim, the Hebrew word used to describe dark skinned Africans.[12][13]

Family tree

JacobLeah
Levi
GershonKohathMerari
IzharHebronUzziel
LibniShimeiAmramJochebed
MiriamAaronMosesZipporah
GershomEliezer

Druze

In the Druze religion, Jethro is revered as the spiritual founder, chief prophet, and ancestor of all Druze.[1][2][4][5][14] Moses was allowed to wed Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, after helping save his daughters and their flock from competing herdsmen.[15] It has been expressed by such prominent Druze such as Amal Nasereldeen[16] and Salman Tarif, who was a prominent Druze shaykh, that this makes the Druze related to the Jews through marriage.[17] This view has been used to represent an element of the special relationship between Israeli Jews and Druze.[18]

References

  1. 1 2 Corduan, Winfried (2013). Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World Religions. p. 107. ISBN 0-8308-7197-7.
  2. 1 2 Mackey, Sandra (2009). Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict. p. 28. ISBN 0-3933-3374-4.
  3. ↑ Lev, David (25 October 2010). "MK Kara: Druze are Descended from Jews". Israel National News. Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  4. 1 2 Blumberg, Arnold (1985). Zion Before Zionism: 1838-1880. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. p. 201. ISBN 0-8156-2336-4.
  5. 1 2 Rosenfeld, Judy (1952). Ticket to Israel: An Informative Guide. p. 290.
  6. ↑ 1 Chronicles 23:16-17
  7. ↑ Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.
  8. ↑ "Exodus 2 - Passage Lookup - New International Version - BibleGateway.com". biblegateway.com. Retrieved 2014-04-05.
  9. ↑ "Judges 4 / Hebrew - English Bible / Mechon-Mamre". mechon-mamre.org. Retrieved 2014-04-05.
  10. ↑ Ex. 18:2
  11. ↑ http://biblehub.com/numbers/12-1.htm
  12. ↑ David M. Goldenberg. The curse of Ham: race and slavery in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, chapter 8. p. 124.
  13. ↑ Israël Shahak. Jewish history, Jewish religion: the weight of three thousand years. p. 25
  14. ↑ Lev, David (25 October 2010). "MK Kara: Druze are Descended from Jews". Israel National News. Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  15. ↑ Nettler (1998). Muslim-Jewish Encounters. p. 139. ISBN 1-1344-0854-4.
  16. ↑ Mordechai Nisan (1 Jan 2002). Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle and Self-Expression, 2d ed. McFarland. p. 282. ISBN 9780786451333.
  17. ↑ Eugene L. Rogan; Avi Shlaim (2001). The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 (illustrated, reprint ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 72. ISBN 9780521794763.
  18. ↑ Alex Weingrod (1 Jan 1985). Studies in Israeli Ethnicity: After the Ingathering. Taylor & Francis. p. 273. ISBN 9782881240072.

Further reading

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