Moses' Wife

Moses had only ONE wife:
[Num. 12:1] And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Zipporah, Moses wife, was a Midianite, and because Midian bordered on Ethiopia , it is sometimes referred to in the scriptures by this name. She was the daughter of a priest of Midian, the person who introduced her tribal practice of circumcision to the Hebrews when she insisted upon circumcising her son Gershom.
An Ethiopian woman - Hebrew , "a Cushite woman" - Arabia was usually called in Scripture the land of Cush, its inhabitants being descendants of that son of Ham accounted generally a vile and contemptible race the part of Miriam and Aaron against Moses was the great change made in the government by the adoption of the seventy rulers (11:16). Their irritating disparagement of his wife (who, in all probability, was Zipporah (Ex. 2:21), and not a second wife he had recently married) arose from jealousy of the relatives, through whose influence the innovation had been first made (Ex. 18: 13-26), while they were overlooked or neglected. Miriam is mentioned before Aaron as being the chief instigator and leader of the sedition. The Rabbis portray Numbers 12:1 Miriam, as an individual who was never afraid to deliver a severe rebuke when necessary – to her father, even to the Pharaoh. As an adult, Miriam now harshly condemns her brother, Moses. This time, she will not come out unscathed.
The text seems to suggest that the cause of the rebuke was the marriage of Moses to a Cushite (Ethiopian) woman, but many Scholars believe that a later editor of Scripture added this particular line. There was a report to Moses that Eldad and Medad, two men not chosen by Moses, were going about the camp engaging in the mystery of prophecy and ecstatic communion with the Divine. Zipporah, standing within earshot, spontaneously exclaimed, “Woe to the wives of these two men if they have anything to do with prophecy, for they will separate from their wives, just as my husband has separated from me!” Miriam, who witnessed Zipporah’s reaction, reported it to her brother, Aaron. Miriam, at that moment, realized that Moses had separated himself from his wife, and she believed that Zipporah had been wronged, deprived of the possibility of and obligation to procreate. Miriam brags that even though she and Aaron also receive Divine revelations, they, unlike Moses, chose not to halt their conjugal life. Miriam falsely accuses Moses of unwarranted pride, of falsely displaying the appearance of a Holy Man. It was Miriam, not Aaron, who led the revolt.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ya you're right! I had never heard or read he had more than one wife and you and I had studied this on higher levels than the others. We better stay on our toes girl!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for clearing that up.