Exodus 4:26

26 And he left him alone. At that time she said, "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 {And} on the way, at the place of overnight lodging, Yahweh encountered him and sought to kill him.

25 But Zipporah took a flint [knife], and she cut off the foreskin of her son, and she touched his feet, and she said, "Yes, you [are] a bridegroom of blood to me."

26 And he left him alone. At that time she said, "A bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.

27 And Yahweh said to Aaron, "Go to the desert to meet Moses." And he went and encountered him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of Yahweh, who had sent him--and all the signs that he had commanded him.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew "circumcisions"