Exodus 4:25

4:25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses’ feet, 1  and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood 2  to me.”

Exodus 12:19

12:19 For seven days 3  yeast must not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is made with yeast – that person 4  will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner 5  or one born in the land.

Exodus 32:24

32:24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, break it off.’ So they gave it 6  to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.” 7 

1 tn Heb “to his feet.” The referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The LXX has “and she fell at his feet” and then “the blood of the circumcision of my son stood.” But it is clear that she caused the foreskin to touch Moses’ feet, as if the one were a substitution for the other, taking the place of the other (see U. Cassuto, Exodus, 60).

2 sn U. Cassuto explains that she was saying, “I have delivered you from death, and your return to life makes you my bridegroom a second time, this time my blood bridegroom, a bridegroom acquired through blood” (Exodus, 60-61).

3 tn “Seven days” is an adverbial accusative of time (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 12, §56).

4 tn The term is נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), often translated “soul.” It refers to the whole person, the soul within the body. The noun is feminine, agreeing with the feminine verb “be cut off.”

5 tn Or “alien”; or “stranger.”

6 tn Here “it” has been supplied.

7 sn Aaron first tried to blame the people, and then he tried to make it sound like a miracle – was it to sound like one of the plagues where out of the furnace came life? This text does not mention it, but Deut 9:20 tells how angry God was with Aaron. Only intercession saved his life.