Zipporah

AI summary: Zipporah matters because the cross references place her in two especially revealing settings: Moses' exile and marriage in Midian, and the mysterious circumcision episode on the road to Egypt. She is not a constant narrative presence, but where she appears the stakes are high, involving covenant obedience, household preservation, and the practical reality of Moses' life beyond public leadership. Taken together, the material presents Zipporah as Moses' perceptive and consequential wife, standing at critical moments in Israel's deliverance story.¹

A female bird. Reuel’s daughter, who became the wife of Moses (Ex. 2:21). In consequence of the event recorded in Ex. 4:24-26, she and her two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, when so far on the way with Moses toward Egypt, were sent back by him to her own kinsfolk, the Midianites, with whom they sojourned till Moses afterwards joined them (18:2-6). ³