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Zipporah or Tzipora (צִפּוֹרָה "Bird", Standard Hebrew Ẓippora, Tiberian Hebrew Ṣippôrāh), mentioned in the Book of Exodus, is Moses' wife, and the daughter of Jethro, a priest of Midian.

According to Jewish tradition, she is buried in the Tomb of the Matriarchs, in Tiberias.

Biblical context

In the Book of Exodus, in the process of Moses' exile from Egypt, he begins working for Jethro as a shepherd. Consequently he meets Zipporah, and marries her, and they have two sons, Gershom, and Eliezer.

Zipporah also features in a much more curious, and much-debated, passage. When Moses and Zipporah reach an inn, God tries to kill him, until Zipporah carries out a circumcision.

A third reference to a wife of Moses occurs in the tale of snow-white Miriam, at Numbers 12:1, where she is described as a Cushite (usually understood to mean Ethiopian), but is not named. Since Zipporah is a Midianite, some early sources, such as Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities 2.10-11, and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, as well as modern biblical criticism, have stated that they were different individuals, particularly since bigamy was legal, and practiced elsewhere by Jacob, a major patriarch. Nevertheless, the traditional Jewish and Christian view has been that they are both the same woman, the Cushite reference being only a metaphorical one concerning the perceived beauty of the Cushites.

External links

• Bible Passages Involving Zipporah – Exodus 2:11-23; Exodus 4:18-31; Exodus 18; Numbers 12:1 (NIV)

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