A character from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Zipporah was the daugher of the priest of Midian. She married Moses and bore him sons Gershom and Elizer. She caused some trouble for Moses with his siblings Miriam and Aaron because she was a foreighner.

ZIPPORAH
(zip poh' ruh) HEBREW: SIPPORA
"sparrow" or swallow
_______________

The wife of Moses, Zipporah is also the heroine who wards off a divine attack in perhaps the most obscure and bizarre episode in the book of Exodus. Three short verses tell about Moses and his family going to Egypt when "the Lord met him and sought to kill him" (Ex. 4:24). Biblical scholars speculate that God was angry because Moses, or possibly on of his sons, had not been circumcised. Zipporah immediately circumcised her son and touched the foreskin to the genitals of Moses, implying a substitutionary circumcision. Had Moses himself undergone the surgical procedure, his mission to Egypt no doubt would have been delayed.

Zipporah met and married Moses when he fled to Midian after having killed an Egyptian. She bore him two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. The mother and sons did not accompany Moses all the way to Egypt, but returned to Zipporah's father, the Midianite priest Jethro. Moses and his family were reunited during the Exodus.

cf... E2 Dictionary of Biblical People

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.