Introduction

Zipporah (also spelled with a "Ts" instead of a "Z" in some translations) was the wife of Moses. Although they meet in Exodus 2:16, we are not officially introduced to her by name until Exodus 2:21, when her father arranges for her to be Moses' wife. Her name means "bird" in Hebrew.[2]

Questions

On the Passage(s)

1. Is Zipporah the same woman as the Ethiopian/Cushite woman Miriam and Aaron take issue with in Numbers 12:1
   • Why did Miriam and Moses have something against her?
   • Why didn't the issue come up in the beginning?
2. Did Zipporah's "other-ness" effect Moses' sons ability to become leaders?
3. Did the Israelites accept Zipporah?
4. How old was she?
5. Was Zipporah the eldest daughter?
6. Did her dad decide she should marry Moses (or was she in love with him)?
7. Did she want to marry Moses?
8. What was her relationship with God?
9. What role did she play in the congregation?
10. Did Moses' trust her spiritual discernment?
11. How did Zipporah know that God was angry about the circumcision?
12. Were Moses and Zipporah equally yoked?
13. Moses dies before reaching the promised land but what about Zipporah?
14. How did Zipporah feel about the Israelites' situation?
15. Why didn't she stay with Moses when he went back to Egypt?
16. Who accompanied her back to Midian?
17. When did she go back to Midian
    • Why did she go back to Midian?
    • Did she believe Pharoah would let the Israelites go?
    • Was she afraid of the plagues?
    • Did she miss Moses while she was gone?

If I Could Speak to Her

Zipporah reminds me of the saying "behind every successful man, is a strong woman." I have so many questions about Zipporah's role in supporting (or not supporting) Moses and her "otherness" in the midst of Israel. I feel that the conversation I would want to have with her would be focused on those two ideas. Some of the more direct questions I would as her are:

1. Did she actually support Moses, or did she think he was crazy?
2. She was raised by the priest of Midian, so was she spiritual and did she have spiritual conversations with Moses?
3. Did Moses trust her spiritual judgment?
4. If Zipporah is the Ethiopian woman, did she and Moses' family ever make ammends?
5. How did that effect their marriage?
6. Was Zipporah accepted by the other Israelites or did they reject her?
7. Was her "race" a factor in their sons fading into obscurity (were they rejected for not being fully Israelite)?

Heritage and Ethnicity

Zipporah is a Midianite—or so we assume. Exodus 2 tells us that when Moses enters Midian he helps a group of women who are the daughters of the priest of Midian. Zipporah is one of those women. It is easy to then make the claim that she is therefore a Midianite.

However, I want to draw your attention to a more modern example to highlight the complexities of identity. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the Governor of California. I do not know if he has US Citizenship, but he was born in Austria and is of Austrian descent.[5] Another example of complex identity is that of Barak Obama, who was the president of the United States. He is an American citizen born in Hawai'i, but his father was an imigrant from Kenya.[4]

In today's society we have three similar but not synonymous terms to describe identity: Nationality, Race, and Ethnicity. Nationality describes the country in which you have citizenship (e.g., I am American because I am a citizen of the United States of America[6]). Race, though closely associate with origin, is generally defined by phenotype and ancestral origin; there can be many races associated with a nationality and people of the same race can have different nationalities. The latter case is often referred to as a diaspora (e.g. the African diaspora). Ethnicity on the other hand can be about culture or language. For example, Hispanic is an ethnicity. Celebrities like Amara la Negra and Zoe Saldana are both black and Hispanic, but not all black people are Hispanic and not all Hispanic people are black.

Sufficiently confused? Let's go back to Zipporah and her father.

Midian was the son of Abraham and Keturah the same way Israel (Jacob) was Abraham's grandson. Most nations in the Bible actually stem from families. Midian, the place, is likely named after Midian, the person, and probably settled by his descendants. From that we might conclude that the priest of Midian is a descendant of Midian, thus a descendant of Abraham and a Hebrew. However, the preist of Midian doesn't have to be a Midianite. There is a subtle difference in being the priest of Midian and a Midianite priest. This is like Arnold Schwarzenegger being the Governor of California but not and American.

Where this question becomes interesting is the passage in Numbers 12:1, where Miriam and Aaron take issue with Moses' Cushite or Ethiopian wife. Is this referencing Zipporah or did he take another wife?

There are a few things to consider:

• All of these kingdoms were in close proximity to each other.
• People from different groups married each other (e.g. Judah married a Canaanite woman and Joseph married an Egyptian woman).
• There's a weird explanation in Numbers 12 as though we don't already know about this woman—why does it repeat that he had married an Ethiopian woman? Is this to remind us the woman in question is Zipporah since we would assume her to be Midianit? Or is it to call attention to the fact that this is not Zipporah and Moses had remarried?
• In Exodus 18, not only does Moses' father-in-law bring Zipporah to Moses, he also gives Moses the idea to delegate some of his owrk to others. In Numbers 11, we see this idea being implented, implying Moses' father-in-law has already come (with Zipporah), what if this was when Miriam and Aaron first met Zipporah?

There is nothing that definitively says Zipporah is or isn't also the Egyptian woman. Most people, however, believe that she is.

Genealogy/Legacy

Much of this is discussed in the section on Zipporah's heritage, so we won't rehash that. We know that her father was from Midian, so many assume she is a descendant of Abraham's son Midian. She is also presumed to be the Ethiopia wife of Moses.

Zipporah gives birth to two sons: Gershom (Exodus 2:22) and Eliezer (Exodus 18:4).

Given To Moses

Many people believe the Bible to be anti-woman and I could already hear the arguments when I read Exodus 2:21. The phrasing that Zipporah's father gave her to Moses—many feminists take issue with the concepts of asking a father for permission to marry as well as giving the bride away—set off alarm bells. That's a large topic and not the point of this post, but I do want to touch on some aspects of it.

In Genesis 19, we see Lot offer his daughters up to a mob. There is no indication that they volunteered for this or even that they were aware of their father's proposal. In contrast, we see Rebekah's parents give her the option to accept or decline the offer to marry Isaac (Genesis 24:58). In that regard, it seems only natural to wonder where on this spectrum did Zipporah's situation fit. Was she forced into marriage? Was it simply an arranged match that she didn't protest (like Rebekah and Isaac)? Or did a romance blossom between them?

The word translated to "gave" in Exodus 2:21, could also mean to grant. Whether we like it or not, we have to remember that up until recent times it was expected that men were to take care of women. A son was expected to grow into adulthood and provide for his family, but a daughter was to be taken care of. As such, the tradition of "giving" away a bride stems from giving away the responsibility. In some cases this was done without consideration for the woman but simply to brush off responsibility. In other cases it was a serious matter, in which a family was very selective of whom they trusted with that responsibility.

I would argue based on the definition of love in Corinthians 13 that a loving father would not force his daughter to marry someone she did want to and would not act against her best interests. We are told that Zipporah's father is a priest and later we see he advises Moses. Midian was a son of Abraham and his final wife, Keturah. It is likely that he was a priest of YHWH and possible that he mentored Moses while Moses was living in Midian. From this, one could argue that Zipporah's father was a man of God and a loving father. That being said, Abraham was man of God but struggled with lying; Moses was a man of God who committed murder; David was a man of God and also committed murder. Men of God are not perfect.

Since we are not told explicity, we don't know which end of the spectrum Zipporah's situation fell on.

Phototheology

Phototheology is a way of learning the Bible taught by Ivor Myers.[3] I am employing this technique in my weekly Woman of God study journal. The following three pormpts are the ones I drew from the card deck while studying Zipporah.

How does the story relate to temperance?

Temperance is one of the fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23. It deals with our ability to act with restraint instead of following our every whim. One of the moments of note concerning Zipporah is when she gets frustrated with Moses' failure to circumcise their son. In this instance, we see her deliver some harsh words to Moses, which made me think of quite a few things.

Zipporah was correct that Moses had failed in his duty and her actions saved his life. However, there is the question of whether she could have handled it differently. How we talk to each other matters, and for me personally is probably one of my weakest areas of self control. It's hard to hold back when we know we are right, but also there's a time when we have to speak up boldly. Knowing how and when is critical and part of discernment. Only the Holy Spirit can really teach us that.

How does the text relate to Heaven?

When I think about the Exodus, the Promised Land represents Heaven. The Israelites were in bondage in Egypt (the way we are in bondage to sin). Zipporah and her family were safe in Midian; they didn't need to be involved in the Exodus at all, yet they were. No matter how good it is on Earth, we'll always be searching for Heaven. We all need salvation and a beacon to lead us to that salvation.

What symbols or types can be applied to the passage?

One of the most common symbols in the Bible is that of a woman representing the church—the easiest example being that the Church is called the Bride of Christ. If Zipporah was to represent the Church, what would it say about the Church? Zipporah was obedient to God and followed His covenant. When Moses failed, she stepped in and did the right thing. Often churches will follow bad leaders and be led astray when we should stand for God like Zipporah.

Similarly, Zipporah could represent God's people who are not Israel. Zipporah is not an Israelite, but she is the wife of Moses—who bears many similarities to Messiah and could be considered a type of Christ. If Moses is symbolic of (and foreshadowing) Messiah, Zipporah then represents the Church, but not as the people of her time would have understood it. The Church, also known as God's people, is obedient to the Most High, but is not dependent of bloodline. Zipporah and her father supported Moses and aided him on his quest to free the Israelites. Similiar, there have been, are, and will be maybe non-Israelite people a support Messiah as He takes the throne.

Circumcision needs its own post, but at the basic level, we know the it was a sign of the covenant with Abraham. Zipporah was aware that this needed to be done, proving that the tradition was common in Midian as well. This is a reminder that all of Abrhaam's children received this sign and the blessings that came with it. Paul will eventually talk about circumcision of the heart.

Journal Pages

Images from my journal study on Zipporah.

References & Footnotes

1. "What was the date of the exodus from Egypt?". GotQuestions.org; visited February 2025
2. "Strongs H6855. צִפֹּרָה". Blue Letter Bible; visited January 2025
3. Pastor Ivor Myers' Phototheology Game Deck
4. "Barack Obama". Wikipedia; visited February 2025
5. "Arnold Schwarzenegger". Wikipedia; visited February 2025
6. Yes, I know that people from the American can be used to refer to anyone from the Americas and technically should not be a Nationality, but no one refers to people from the US as "Statesian" and American is the term most would apply as the Nationality of some of from the US regardless of the accuracy/fairness.