Zipporah
Gentile Midianite · Exodus & Wilderness · Old Testament
- Name means
- Bird
- Role
- Midianite wife of Moses
- When
- c. 1500-1400 BC (traditional)
What they did
Married Moses in Midian and bore him two sons. On the journey to Egypt she circumcised her son.
Why it matters: the purpose of their role
A Gentile woman became the wife of Israel's deliverer and the mother of his sons, showing that God's household included people from the nations.
And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. Exodus 2:21 (KJV)
Bible references
And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land. Exodus 2:21-22 (KJV)
And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. 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. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision. Exodus 4:24-26 (KJV)
Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land: And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh: Exodus 18:2-4 (KJV)
Family
- Father
- Jethro (Reuel)
- Spouse(s)
- Moses
- Children
- Gershom, Eliezer
- Brothers / sisters
- Six sisters (unnamed)
Jethro brought her and her sons to Moses in the wilderness (Exodus 18:2-5).