Exodus 4:26

26 So He let him alone. At that time she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood," referring to the circumcision.^[a]

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 On the trip, at an overnight campsite, it happened that the Lord confronted him and sought to put him to death.

25 So Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son's foreskin, and threw it at Moses' feet. Then she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood to me!"

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

27 Now the Lord had said to Aaron, "Go and meet Moses in the wilderness." So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

28 Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and about all the signs He had commanded him [to do].

Footnotes

• [a]. Perhaps Zipporah appeased God on Moses' behalf by circumcising Gershom.