If you read through Exodus too quickly, you might miss the moment when Yahweh, just after he appoints Moshe to deliver His Israelite people from slavery, sets upon Moshe to kill him in the middle of the night. It's most definitely one of the strangest moments in the whole of the Israelite literature we have- but blink and you miss it, for the story is but three short sentences long! It is on Moshe's return journey, when he and his family stop at an inn for some rest. In the darkness of night, with no explanation given, Yahweh shows up as the angel-of-death. But when Zipporah, Moshe's wife seizes a flint-knife and circumcises their son and declares someone (her son? Moshe? Yahweh?) to be her "bridegroom-of-blood," Yahweh relents, and Moshe is left unharmed. The reason Zipporah's actions are satisfactory are as mysterious as to why Moshe was targeted to begin with.
In this post, we offer a retelling, in which we draw on a few other Israelite legends with interesting parallels to answer some of the questions with which the ancient version leaves us.
A brief commentary follows.
Then Yahweh said to Moshe, “Take the staff that is in your hand with you, with which you will perform signs, and return to Egypt!”
So Moshe took his wife and his sons and placed them on a donkey; And Moshe took the staff-of-Elohim in his hand. And he mounted his donkey alongside his wife and sons, and they set out to go.
And when they started out, the donkeys looked, and behold! Yahweh was beside them on the road, with drawn-sword in hand. And the donkeys stopped, frozen with fear. For anger was in His eyes, and He was terrible to behold.(1)
And Moshe, eager to return, raised his voice, and said, "Move, you rebel!" And then, raising the staff-of-Elohim, he beat the donkey twice.(2) And Yahweh heard, and turned his face from Egypt, and looked on as the staff-of-Elohim was used to inflict pain on the innocent. And with anger in His eyes, and sword still drawn, He advanced on Moshe.
But Zipporah’s eyes were opened, and she took Moshe’s son and stood between him and Yahweh. And taking up a flint knife, she cut off the foreskin of her son and threw it at Moshe’s feet. And she said, “A bridegroom of blood! With blood has Israel and Yahweh been betrothed. We have forgotten, but nevermore; We shall honor the covenant of Moshe's fathers!”(3)
Moshe looked upon the circumcision of his son, and he remembered; And he looked upon the staff-of-Elohim in his hand, and recalled that it is not upon the innocent that the staff-of-Elohim is to strike terror- but upon those who would wield their power so as to torment the lowly.
And with Yahweh looking on, Moshe removed himself from the back of his donkey, and took down his wife and his son. And the burdens that the donkey had been carrying, he took upon his own shoulders. And Yahweh saw- and turned His face-of-anger back upon Egypt, where oppression yet remained.(4)
Commentary
(1) We are of course drawing on the story of Bilaam and his donkey from Numbers 22. There are already several parallels between Exodus 4 and Numbers 22. Both involve a prophet on a journey on a donkey. Both involve a fraught relationship between prophet and king. Both ultimately involve justice and/or vengeance. And both, interestingly enough, include the name of a character named Zippor; Moshe's wife, and Bilaam's father.
(2) One of those shameful moments in Moshe's life, as told in the ancient versions, is when Moshe is told to take his staff and speak to a rock, demanding it to produce water for the Israelites (Numbers 20:8). Moshe does take the staff- but then he does more. He uses the staff to beat the rock. This infuriated Yahweh so much that Moshe, the one chosen to bear the burden of redeeming the Israelits from servitude, was banned from entering the Promised Land. Like Numbers 20, in Exodus 4 Moshe is instructed to take the staff. And so in our retelling, Moshe makes the same mistake he will end up making years later- using his staff to beat something that is causing him annoyance. In Numbers 20, he calls the Israelites "You rebels!" before beating the rock twice. In our retelling, the same words come out of Moshe's mouth, though this time directed at the donkey.
(3) Whenever previous blog entries have mentioned the covenant between Yahweh and Israel, Israel's responsibility to championing the lowly has been a critical component. In this moment, Zipporah shows that she brings the covenant between Yahweh and Israel back to the forefront of her mind. For it seems that Moshe had been neglecting the covenant on multiple points; His son son still had his foreskin, as he himself had used his power to exploit, abuse, and cause fear to a living, innocent being. But remember that while Israel has heightened responsibility, Yahweh expects all mankind, in being created in the image-of-Elohim, to be His dutiful representatives on this earth, caring for the world and those who inhabit it. The cost of being able to dwell in this world and to enjoy life is to fulfill this responsibility. Using one's human privilege to dominate and exploit is to forfeit one's right to life, as Moshe had done. But then Zipporah, in circumcising their son, demonstrated to Yahweh that she was taking the covenant to heart. With circumcision, and the drawing of blood, Avraham had entered himself and his heirs into an eternal relationship with Yahweh- and just like she was taking it upon herself to see her son circumcised, she also declared that she would take the totality of Israel's part in the covenant to heart.
(4) Like the ancient version, we are not given any hint as to whether Moshe knew how close his life was to being forfeit, for it seems that unlike Zipporah and unlike the donkey, he never glimpsed Yahweh in His anger. Nevertheless, seeing the fear in Zipporah's eyes and hearing the urgency in her voice, he seemed to realize something supernatural was amiss, and solemnly removed that which the donkeys had been carrying. As he returns to Egypt, he bears a tremendous burden- both physically and otherwise. Yet, beknownst to him or not, he walks in the presence-of-Yahweh, whose sights are set, once again, for Egypt, looking forwards to justice... and vengeance.
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