As it is commonly known to most students of the holy Scriptures: the man Moses fled from Egypt after he had killed an Egyptian, and then dwelt in the land of Midian (Exodus 2:15). It is also clearly understood that Moses married a woman named Zipporah, who was the daughter of Jethro the priest of Midian. However, further on in the story of Moses, Scripture informs us that Moses married an Ethiopian woman (Numbers 12:1). Was this Ethiopian woman really Zipporah, the daughter of the priest of Midian, or did Zipporah die sometime during the forty years in the wilderness leaving Moses a widower and thus allowing him to remarry? Though the Bible does not leave us with a great amount of detail concerning the wife or wives of Moses, the Bible does however provide clues elsewhere in the Pentateuch that can help us better understand the origin of Moses’ Ethiopian wife. So now, let us turn and study the Scriptures in the hopes that we may discern the identity of the Ethiopian wife of Moses.
According to the book of Genesis, the Hebrew patriarch Abraham remarried after the death of his wife Sarah. The Bible tells us that the name of the woman who Abraham married was Keturah, but scripture does not identify her racial background or her genealogy. However, further on in Genesis, the Bible does make mention of a people group known as the Midianites, who were the descendants of Midian, who was a son of Abraham and his wife Keturah (Genesis 25:1-2). These descendants of Midian settled in a region near the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aqaba in the northwestern corner of what we know today as the country of Saudi Arabia. Thus it is understood that when Moses left Egypt, he must have traveled eastwards past the Sinai peninsula until he reached the land of Midian.
Now the fact that both the Hebrews and the Midianites shared a common ancestor, namely Abraham, then the marriage of Moses to Zipporah must not have been such a scandalous ceremony. However, during the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness, we see how both Miriam and Aaron spoke against their brother Moses because he had married an Ethiopian woman (Numbers 12:1). From this passage a couple important questions may be asked. One, if this unnamed Ethiopian woman was Moses’ first wife, then why did Miriam and Aaron wait to complain about this interracial marriage of their brother Moses several years (possibly even decades) after they left Egypt and not sooner? Also, if Moses had only one wife, then why does the Bible identify her as being a Midianite in one place and then as an Ethiopian or Cushite in another place? It is my theory that Moses was in fact married twice. His first wife was a Midianite, who must have died sometime during the wanderings in the desert and his second wife, being of Ethiopian descent, must have originated from the mixed multitude that went up also with the children of Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 12:38).
This mixed multitude that the Bible speaks of were a people of non-Hebrew or Israelite stock, who also chose to follow Moses out of Egypt. Thus it is highly probable that the various people groups stemming from the neighboring countries surrounding Egypt, as well as several other African nations, were all a part of the mixed multitude that went up also with the children of Israel in the Exodus. So, the Ethiopian wife of Moses must have come from among the mixed multitude of the non-Israelite tribes who willingly chose to leave Egypt, and who also chose to accept and worship the One True God of Israel. Though the mixed multitude were ethnically separated from the Hebrews, this did not mean that the God of Israel didn’t love them just as He did the other Israelites. Evidence of divine favor among the foreign nations who lived alongside the camp of Israel was revealed when God struck Miriam with leprosy after she spoke against Moses for marrying an Ethiopian woman (Numbers 12:10). So even from ancient times has God proven to not show favoritism among the children of men, and it is also evident that the Lord deals with and judges all of mankind without partiality, and without hypocrisy (James 3:17).
Now that a clear argument has been made regarding the identity of the wives of Moses, I would like to close this study by touching on quite a bizarre story which is found in the book of Exodus concerning Moses and his Midianite wife Zipporah. As Exodus informs us, shortly after God called Moses to go down unto Egypt to free the Hebrew slaves, the Lord sought to kill Moses. For it is written, “And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. 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. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision” (Exodus 4:24-26). This passage is indeed a perplexing account in the life of Moses, but to understand why the Lord wanted to kill the very man He had just called to the prophetic office may be clarified by looking into the covenant of circumcision that God handed down to Abraham and to his seed after him. For as the Lord spoke unto Abraham saying, “…ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you…and the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant” (Genesis 17:11,14). So because Moses had been negligent by not circumcising his son, as was the custom of the children of Abraham, Moses had broken the covenant between God and His people which in turn kindled God’s wrath to the point that He would have killed Moses had not Zipporah taken matters into her own hands. Through the circumcision of Moses’ son was the Lord’s anger appeased so that Moses would not be put to death because of his disobedience to the covenant between God and the seed of Abraham.
It is interesting to note that even though Moses was married to foreign women, these intermarriages must have been blessed in the eyes of the Lord. For if it was not for Zipporah, Moses would have died and if it was sinful for Moses to marry an Ethiopian woman, then God would not have punished Miriam for speaking out against her brother’s marriage to a non-Israelite. Even in the genealogy of Jesus Christ do we find the records of gentile women who were married to Hebrew men. So it is evident from searching the Scriptures that God loves and cares for all people, and not just the Jews. The mixed multitude who came out of Egypt along with the Israelites also stand as a testimony of God’s love and mercy towards all people. So whether we are African or European or Asian, the Lord is not looking at the color of our skin, but at the content of our character.
References:
Ancient Faith Study Bible. (Nashville, Tennessee: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019).
Gregory of Nyssa. The Life of Moses. (New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 2006).
Kirsch, J. Moses, A Life. (New York, NY: The Ballantine Publishing Group, 1998).
Zondervan. The Holy Bible, King James Version. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2009).