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Zipporah or Tzipora ( ; Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: Sephora ; Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
: Safura or Safrawa ; "bird"), mentioned in the Book of Exodus
Exodus

Exodus is the second book of the Jewish Torah and of the Christian Old Testament. It tells how Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Mountain of God Sinai....
, was the wife of Moses
Moses

Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
, and the daughter of Jethro, a princess
Princess

Princess, is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or her daughters.For many centuries, the title "princess" was not regularly used for a monarch's daughter, who might simply be called "Lady" or a non-English equivalent; Old English language had no female equivalent to "prince", "earl"...
 and priest
Priest

A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities....
 of Midian
Midian

Midian was a land bordered by the Arabah between Moab and Elat and by the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea. Its East had no borders.In Bible history, Midian was where Moses spent the 40 years between the time that he fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who had been beating an Israelite, and his return for leading the Israelites....
.

he Book of Exodus
The Exodus

The Exodus , is the term used for the escape, departure and emancipation of the enslaved Israelites freed from Ancient Egypt as described in the Hebrew Bible, mainly in the Book of Exodus....
, in the process of Moses' exile from Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, he begins working for Jethro as a shepherd
Shepherd

A shepherd is a person who tends to, feeds or guards sheep, especially in flocks. The word may also refer to one who provides religious guidance, as a pastor....
. Consequently he meets Zipporah (meaning female/little bird), and marries her. They have two sons, 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 criticism regard the name as being essentially the same as Gershon, and it is Gershom rather than Gershon who is sometimes li...
, and Eliezer
Eliezer

Eliezer was the name of at least three different characters in the Bible....
.

Zipporah also features in a much more curious, and much-debated, passage (Exodus 4:24-27).






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Zipporah or Tzipora ( ; Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: Sephora ; Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
: Safura or Safrawa ; "bird"), mentioned in the Book of Exodus
Exodus

Exodus is the second book of the Jewish Torah and of the Christian Old Testament. It tells how Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Mountain of God Sinai....
, was the wife of Moses
Moses

Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
, and the daughter of Jethro, a princess
Princess

Princess, is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or her daughters.For many centuries, the title "princess" was not regularly used for a monarch's daughter, who might simply be called "Lady" or a non-English equivalent; Old English language had no female equivalent to "prince", "earl"...
 and priest
Priest

A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities....
 of Midian
Midian

Midian was a land bordered by the Arabah between Moab and Elat and by the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea. Its East had no borders.In Bible history, Midian was where Moses spent the 40 years between the time that he fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who had been beating an Israelite, and his return for leading the Israelites....
.

Biblical context

In the Book of Exodus
The Exodus

The Exodus , is the term used for the escape, departure and emancipation of the enslaved Israelites freed from Ancient Egypt as described in the Hebrew Bible, mainly in the Book of Exodus....
, in the process of Moses' exile from Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, he begins working for Jethro as a shepherd
Shepherd

A shepherd is a person who tends to, feeds or guards sheep, especially in flocks. The word may also refer to one who provides religious guidance, as a pastor....
. Consequently he meets Zipporah (meaning female/little bird), and marries her. They have two sons, 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 criticism regard the name as being essentially the same as Gershon, and it is Gershom rather than Gershon who is sometimes li...
, and Eliezer
Eliezer

Eliezer was the name of at least three different characters in the Bible....
.

Zipporah also features in a much more curious, and much-debated, passage (Exodus 4:24-27). The passage concerning Moses and Zipporah reach an inn
Zipporah at the inn

The tale of Zipporah at the inn, is one of the more unusual, curious, and much-debated, passages of the Torah.When Moses and Zipporah reach an inn:...
 contains four of the most difficult sentences in Biblical text. One possible interpretation is that something (perhaps God, perhaps an agent of God) tries to kill Moses, until Zipporah carries out a circumcision
Circumcision

Male circumcision is the removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin ' and ' .Early depictions of circumcision are found in cave drawings and Ancient Egyptian tombs, though some pictures may be open to interpretation....
. (Other interpretations suggest that it is their son, Gershom, who is attacked.) Yet another is that Moses tries to kill his own son and only after Zipporah cuts the child's foreskin, drawing blood and pain, does his anger subside.

A third reference to a wife of Moses occurs in the story of Aaron
Aaron

In the Hebrew Bible, Aaron , or Aaron the Levite , was the brother of Moses. He was the great-grandson of Levi and represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first Kohen Gadol of the Hebrews....
 and Miriam
Miriam

Miriam was the sister of Moses and Aaron, and the daughter of Amram and Jochebed. She appears first in the book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible....
's complaints, at Numbers
Book of Numbers

The Book of Numbers, , is the fourth book of the Torah, the Tanakh, and the Old Testament. In the Greek language Septuagint it is called Arithmoi, or Numbers....
 12:1, where his wife is described as a Cushite or Kushite, an African ethnic group. However the Midians themselves were a dark-skinned people often called Kushim, the Hebrew word used to describe black Africans. Modern biblical criticism has stated that they were different individuals, particularly since bigamy was legal, and practiced elsewhere by Jacob
Jacob

According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob , also known as Israel , was the third Biblical patriarchs and the ancestor of the twelve Israelites....
, a major patriarch. Nevertheless, a traditional Jewish and Christian view has been that they are both the same woman because Moses had only one wife. What has become known as "the Cushite reference" identifies Zipporah with the ancient inhabitants of North Sudan, i.e. the ancient Cushites (also known as Nubians
Nubians

The Nubians are an ethnic group originally from northern Sudan, now inhabiting East Africa and some parts of Northeast Africa, such as southern Egypt....
- a black skinned, African people).

Flavius Josephus refers to this wife as Tharbis
Tharbis

File:Moses confronted by Miriam and Aaron.jpgA Cushite princess of Ethiopia, Tharbis married the Hebrew Moses prior to his ascendancy to prophethood and better-known marriage to Zipporah....
, whom Moses married before fleeing Egypt. He married her during his campaign to Ethiopia as a general for the Egyptians.

See also

  • Moses in rabbinic literature
    Moses in rabbinic literature

    Of all Hebrew Bible personages Moses has been chosen most frequently as the subject of later legends; and his life has been recounted in full detail in the poetic Aggadah....

External links