Moses Wife

[Ex. 2:21] And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
Ladies first originated here. Moses flees for succor to his distant kinsmen, the Midianites. The Midianite tribal chief is given three different names (Reuel, Hobab, and Jethro), possibly indicating three related people. (Ex. 3:1; 4:18; 2:16-18; Num. 10:29; Jug. 4:11; Jug. 1:16). There is much debate as to which the Midianites were and how they were related to the Kenits and also concerning the extent of their influence upon the faith of Moses. They show true hospitality, sharing their food and lifestyle. The women laboriously fill the troughs with water from the well for their stock only to be driven away by the lurking shepherds who use the water for their animal. This time Moses intervenes successfully on behalf of the women. He marries the chief’s daughter, Zipporah.
Exodus 2:17-21 Zipporah was the daughter of Reuel, a priest of Midian, and bears Moses 2 children, Gershom and Eliezer. Ger meaning stranger, and Sham meaning there – a stranger, there, in a strange land. Eliezer: El referring to G-d, and ezer meaning help – for the G-d of my father was my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.
After her marriage to Moses, nothing more will be said of Zipporah until chapter 4. By performing the ritual circumcision on Gershom, she wards off a Divine attack that appears to occur as she and her son return to Egypt from Midian with Moses. It is said that she was the person who introduced her tribal practice of circumcision to the Hebrews. Circumcision is an ancient rite of passage belonging to many cultures and marking one of three events in the life of a male (female circumcision is not mentioned in the Scriptures). It is performed shortly after birth, or at puberty, or before marriage. The Hebrews circumcision was a rite of birth, done on the 8th day. The basic meaning of circumcision in the Hebrew tradition is acceptance to membership in the people of G-d. it was the sign of entrance into a corporate relationship with Yahweh, together with all the other people of Israel. The rite was not merely for hygienic purpose, nor was it racially distinctive, since various other peoples of the ancient near East also practiced it.
Circumcision is one of the many types of sacrifice in which a small part of a person is cut off and presented as a token for the whole person. Circumcision is a form of human sacrifice, the foreskin is the blood sacrifice demanded by Yahweh The operation is done with a flint to express, consciously or unconsciously, the antiquity and holiness of the rite or, quite simply, because a flint would have been sharper than a metal knife of the period.
Zipporah’s comment, “you are a fine bloody bridegroom” is not angrily sarcastic – “you are a fine bloody bridegroom!” – but a statement that Moses, by virtue of Gresham’s blood, is well and truly within the covenant community that is about to be formed. Zipporah takes her place among the other life-giving and life-preserving women of Exodus. It is through her actions that Moses lives to lead Israel. Zipporah acts as mediator, as a neutral – since she was a Hebrew (descendent from Abraham and Keturah) and does not have to be circumcised herself – she persuades Yahweh to reprieve her husband.
In chapter 18, Scripture suggests that while the events of the Exodus were taking place, Zipporah remained in Midian with her father and was reunited with Moses when the Israelites approached the Sinai wilderness. Zipporah will never again mention.
Zipporah – means a small bird.