Exodus 4:26

26 So He let him alone. At that time she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood "-because of the circumcision.

Exodus 4:26 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 4:26

So he let him go
That is, the Lord let Moses go; suffered him to go on his journey without any further interruption; as the Targums, "it", the angel, ceased from him, or left him; or the disease and trembling departed from him, as Aben Ezra, and he was quite well and easy; though Grotius, after Lyra, understands it of Zipporah, she departed from him, that is, from Moses, and returned to Midian again, as it seems she did; but this the grammatical construction of the words will not bear, being masculine, though sometimes the masculine is used of women, as in ( Exodus 1:21 ) : then she said, a bloody husband thou art because of the circumcision;
this is repeated, partly to give the reason of her calling him a bloody husband, because of the circumcision, and partly because of her great joy on occasion of her husband's restoration to her by this means.

Exodus 4:26 In-Context

24 Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the LORD met him and sought to put him to death.
25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet, and she said, "You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me."
26 So He let him alone. At that time she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood "-because of the circumcision.
27 Now the LORD said to Aaron, "Go to meet Moses in the wilderness." So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
28 Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which He had sent him, and all the signs that He had commanded him to do.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Lit "with reference to"
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