“Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.”
Zipporah takes a flint knife, cuts off her son's foreskin, touches Moses' feet with it, and says: surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. Zipporah acts to save her husband's life, performing the circumcision Moses had apparently neglected. The act is swift and decisive — a Midianite woman, daughter of a pagan priest, performing the covenant sign of Israel to spare the life of the man God is about to kill. The phrase bridegroom of blood is obscure and has generated much scholarly discussion, but whatever its precise meaning, it is clearly spoken in the context of the rite having been performed. Ruth 2:11 describes Ruth's faithfulness to a covenant not originally her own; Zipporah embodies the same faithfulness here, acting on covenant obligation without being herself an Israelite. The deliverer's life is saved by a woman who chose obedience over convenience.
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