Dictionaries :: Zipporah

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Zipporah:

a female bird. Reuel's daughter, who became the wife of Moses (Exd 2:21). In consequence of the event recorded in Exd 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).

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary

Zipporah:

beauty; trumpet; mourning

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Zipporah:

zi-po'-ra, zip'-o-ra (tsipporah; Sepphora): The Midianite wife of Moses, daughter of Jethro, also called Hobab, and probably grand-daughter of Reuel, a priest of Midian at the time Moses fled from Egypt, later succeeded at his death by Jethro, or Hobab (Ex 2:21,22; 4:25,26; 18:2-6).

Whether or not Zipporah was the "Cushite woman" (Nu 12:1) is a much-mooted question. There is little ground for anything more than speculation on the subject. The use of the words, "Cushite woman" in the mouth of Aaron and Miriam may have been merely a description of Zipporah and intended to be opprobrious, or they may have been ethnic in character and intended to denote another woman whom Moses had married, as suggested by Ewald (Gesch. des Volkes Israel, II, 252). The former view seems the more probable. The association of Midian and Cushan by Habakkuk (3:7) more than 700 years afterward may hardly be adduced to prove like close relationship between these peoples in the days of Moses.

Written by M. G. Kyle

Nave's Topical Bible

Zipporah: Wife of Moses

Exd 2:16-22

Zipporah: Reproaches Moses

Exd 4:25, 26

Zipporah: Separates from Moses

Is brought again to him by her father,

Exd 18:2-6.

Zipporah: Miriam and Aaron Upbraid Moses Concerning

Num 12:1