Zipporah

In Bible versions:

Zipporah: NET AVS NIV NRSV NASB TEV

wife of Moses

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beauty; trumpet; mourning

Arts:

Arts Topics: Fleeing to Midian, Meeting Zipporah

Hebrew

Strongs #06855: hrpu Tsipporah

Zipporah = "bird"

1) daughter of Reuel or Jethro, wife of Moses, and mother of Gershom and
Eliezer

6855 Tsipporah tsip-po-raw'

feminine of 6833; bird; Tsipporah, Moses' wife:-Zipporah.
see HEBREW for 06833

Zipporah [EBD]

a female bird. Reuel's daughter, who became the wife of Moses (Ex. 2:21). In consequence of the event recorded in Ex. 4:24-26, she and her two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, when so far on the way with Moses toward Egypt, were sent back by him to her own kinsfolk, the Midianites, with whom they sojourned till Moses afterwards joined them (18:2-6).

Zipporah [NAVE]

ZIPPORAH
Wife of Moses, Ex. 2:16-22.
Reproaches Moses, Ex. 4:25, 26.
Separates from Moses, is brought again to him by her father, Ex. 18:2-6.
Miriam and Aaron rebuke Moses concerning, Num. 12:1.

ZIPPORAH, OR ZIPPORAH [SMITH]

daughter of Reuel or Jethro, the priest of Midian, wife of Moses and mother of his two sons Gershom and Eliezer. (Exodus 2:21; 4:25; 18:2) comp. Exod 18:6 (B.C. 1530.) The only incident recorded in her life is that of the circumcision of Gershom. (Exodus 4:24-28)

ZIPPORAH [ISBE]

ZIPPORAH - zi-po'-ra, zip'-o-ra (tsipporah; Sepphora): The Midianite wife of Moses, daughter of Jethro, also called Hobab, and probably grand-daughter of Reuel, a priest of Midian at the time Moses fled from Egypt, later succeeded at his death by Jethro, or Hobab (Ex 2:21,22; 4:25,26; 18:2-6).

Whether or not Zipporah was the "Cushite woman" (Nu 12:1) is a much-mooted question. There is little ground for anything more than speculation on the subject. The use of the words, "Cushite woman" in the mouth of Aaron and Miriam may have been merely a description of Zipporah and intended to be opprobrious, or they may have been ethnic in character and intended to denote another woman whom Moses had married, as suggested by Ewald (Gesch. des Volkes Israel, II, 252). The former view seems the more probable. The association of Midian and Cushan by Habakkuk (3:7) more than 700 years afterward may hardly be adduced to prove like close relationship between these peoples in the days of Moses.

M. G. Kyle