Monday, July 4, 2022

Exodus 4:24-27 in the KJV and JST

KJV Exo 4:24-27 reads:

 

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. And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.

 

The JST adds some interesting additional details to this pericope. In Old Testament Manuscript 2, page 66, we read:

 


 

and it came to pass, that the lord appeared unto him as he was in the way, by the Inn[;]<,> <&> The Lord was angry with Moses, and his hand was about to fall upon <him,> to kill him, for he had not circumcised his son. then Ziporah took a sharp stone and circumcised her son, and cast the stone at his feet, and said, surely thou art a bloody [hu]<hus>band unto me. And the lord spared Moses, and let him go, because Ziporah, his wife, circumcised the child. And she said, thou art a bloody husband. And Moses was ashamed, and hid his face from the Lord, and said, I have sinned before the Lord. And the Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness, to meet Mosses, And he went and met him, in the mount of God; in the mount where God appeared unto him, and Aaron kissed him

 

The JST adds the reason why God was angry with Moses and was about to kill him (“for he had not circumcised his son”), it was the child of Moses and his circumcision in view (not Moses' circumcision), that Zipporah was the one who circumcised his son, and that “the lord spared Moses,” showing the Zipporah’s action propitiated God’s wrath against Moses, similar to how Moses’ intercession would propitiated God’s wrath against the Israelites (cf. Exo 32-33).