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bekkilyn

(454 posts)
9. According to notes in my NRSV study bible
Thu Apr 20, 2017, 07:22 AM
Apr 2017

4:24-26: The kinship ties beween the Lord and Moses' family are acted out in this story.

4:24: It is unclear who is being attacked by the Lord during the night: Moses' son Gershom? Or Moses himself? In either case, the attack probably represents the Lord's claim on firstborn.

4:25-26: Zipporah stops the attack by circumcising Gershom and warding off the deity with the bloody foreskin. "Feet" is a euphemism for genitals. It is unclear whether Zipporah touches Moses' genitals or is making a symbolic reference to God. Her statement, "Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!" eliminates Gershom as the object of her action. If Moses is the object of her action, then the story may represent an ancient understanding of circumcision as a rescue of the firstborn from the divine claim upon their lives, with Moses representing the firstborn. If the Lord is the object of her action, then the story underscores the familial bond between God and human beings. In the context of the book of Exodus, the story prefigures the death of the Egyptian firstborn and the power of the Passover blood to ward off the divine destroyer.

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