Some Thoughts on Moses’ Divorce and Remarriage

Numbers 12:1, Whom he had married. Some Jewish sages (e.g. Rashi, Baal HaTurim) teach that Moses divorced Zipporah and remarried an Ethiopian or Cushite woman. Was Moses’ marriage to the Ethiopian woman legal in YHVH’s eyes? If not, perhaps this is what the siblings’ complaint was about. Consider this. When Moses married Ziporah, he was not “saved.” His first encounter with YHVH occurred at the burning bush after he had already married Zipporah. This is when Moses received his spiritual calling. He received salvation on Passover night in his house with the lamb’s blood painted on the door. He was baptized in the Red Sea and received the Torah at Mount Sinai.

There is no indication that Zipporah accepted Moses’ heavenly calling to follow YHVH. Even though her father, Yitro, as a descendant of Abraham, knew and seemed to have followed YHVH, this may not have been the case with his daughter. To the contrary, she seems to have resisted YHVH and obedience to him (Exod 4:24–26). In fact, it appears that she returned to Yitro, her father, in Midian and did not accompany Moses in the exodus (see Exod 18:2).

The point is that sometimes YHVH will call, commission and grant salvation to a married person, but the person’s spouse is not open to receiving that calling and salvation. In such instances if the unsaved spouse remains hard hearted toward YHVH and after a period of time has passed, the saved spouse is released from their marriage and is free to remarry a believer.  Paul discusses this in 1 Corinithians 7:10–16.

Though the Torah doesn’t tell us, it is entirely possible that Zipporah was dead by the time Moses married the Cushite woman, since he was an elderly man (somewhere between the age of 80 and 120). Yeshua accepts the fact that because of the hardness of hearts, the Torah permits divorce (Matt 19:8) and presumably remarriage, as seems to have been the case with Moses.

Presumably, the Cushite woman was part of the mixed multitude that accompanied the Israelites in their exodus out of Egypt.

 

12 thoughts on “Some Thoughts on Moses’ Divorce and Remarriage

  1. In Exodus 18 is about how Moses’ family was brought to him at Mount Sinai verse 5, which was after the Exodus. (it says that Moses let his father-in-law depart after a visit in verse 27 but it does not say Zipporah or his children went with him. Was this implied? Later when the census was taken it talks about the families of Gershom and Mirari as being Aaron’s sons. It gets very confusing. Is Mirari really Eleazer? If these are Moses’ sons their families were counted together with the Levites which would imply they were still with Moses serving in the tabernacle or did I miss something?

  2. In Exodus 11:17 it seems that the Lord was the one who told Moses to select 70 elders to help him bear the burden. Was it another matter to council and others had to be chosen as suggested by Moses’ Father-in-Law? Again, I’m just a little confused. It seems there are some things implied but not included. Thanks.

  3. Exodus 2:18New King James Version (NKJV)

    18 When they came to Reuel their father, he said, “How is it that you have come so soon today?”

    Exodus 3:1New King James Version (NKJV)

    3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

    Numbers 10:29New King James Version (NKJV)

    29 Now Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel[a] the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will treat you well; for the Lord has promised good things to Israel.”

    How can you know for sure that Moses was divorced and remarried?
    According to Ex 2:18 Jethro was called Reuel. Then Ex 3:1 shows that Jethro was the priest of Midian and then in Numbers 10:29 Moses tries to get Hobab the son of Reuel (wouldn’t this be Jethro?) the Midianite, Moses father-in-law to go with him.

    If in Numbers 10:29 Moses was still referring Reuel as his father-in-law what gives us any idea that he was divorced and remarried?

    • It appears that Moses had separated from Zipporah and eventually put her away from what we read in Exod 18:2, which says that Moses “had sent her back.” Because of the wording here, some Jewish sages take this to mean that he had divorced her. Now couple that with the fact that he married a Cushite woman from Ethiopia. Some Jewish sages twist the scripture here to mean that Zipporah (who lived in Midian in southern Saudi Arabia) was a Cushite (from Ethiopia south of Egypt in Africa), but this is a stretch and violates the plain meaning of the text.

  4. Hi Natan …A story exists about Moses ,when a General of Egypt invaded Ethiopla to bring it under Egyptian control.It was while he was preparing his army & defences to attack ,that the Queen of Ethiopia sent messengers to propose marriage, which Moses supposedly accepted & added Ethiopia as an ally of Egypt without bloodshed.???….One might assume the marriage was over when Moses fled Egypt ,or she may have died prior to marrying Zipporah the Midianitess

    • There are many legends and stories in rabbinic literature, but take them all with a grain of salt if not substantiated in Scripture. We just have no way to authenticate their veracity; therefore, it’s hard to place much credence in them.

    • Certainly that is a possibility, but Scripture doesn’t say one way or another. All we know is that Mo put Zip away and remarried. We’re not given any other details. Even the theory I put forth in this piece contains some speculative elements, so we can’t be dogmatic.

      • What is the book, chapter and verse of Moses put Zipporus away and remarried

      • Nowhere does the Bible nor I state definitively that Moses divorced his wife, but this idea is based on the verbiage found Exodus 18:2. The phrase “sent away/back” in verse two is the Hebrew shilluach and according to Strong’s Concordance and Gesenius’ Hebrew Lexicon can refer to divorce. Shilluach is from shalakh (shin-lamed-chet), a basic verb meaning “to send” where in Isaiah 50:1 and Jeremiah 3:1 the prophets use it referring to YHVH’s divorce from the house of Israel or Ephraim.

        Moreover, Zipporah is never again mentioned in the Torah and, in fact, we see the possibly that the divorced Moses even married another woman (Num 12:1)—apparently a black woman from Ethiopia.

        We know that Elohim hates divorce because of all of its adverse implications, but out happens due to the hardness of carnal human hearts.

        Make this what you will.

  5. You reference Exodus 4:24-26 as Zipporah’s disobedience to God, but it appears she saves Moses’ life through circumcision of their son. And it mentions that Moses sent Zipporah to her father, but it is unclear on motive/how long considering Jethro gives Moses advice on how to run things. Jethro leaves at the end of the chapter, but there is no mention of Zipporah leaving.

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