Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
Now Zipporah could provide Moses with all sorts of dainties as he lay
in the pit, and she did it for the space of seven years. At the
expiration of this period, she said to her father: "I recollect that
once upon a time thou didst cast into yonder pit a man that had fetched
thy rod from the garden for thee, and thou didst commit a great
trespass thereby. If it seemeth well to thee, uncover the pit and look
into it. If the man is dead, throw his corpse away, lest it fill the
house with stench. But should he be alive, then thou oughtest to be
convinced that he is one of those who are wholly pious, else he had
died of hunger."
The reply of Jethro was: "Thou hast spoken wisely. Dost thou remember
his name?" And Zipporah rejoined, "I remember he called himself Moses
the son of Amram." Jethro lost no time, he opened the pit, and called
out, "Moses! Moses!" Moses replied, and said: "Here am I!" Jethro drew
him up out of the pit, kissed him, and said: "Blessed be God, who
guarded thee for seven years in the pit. I acknowledge that He slayeth
and reviveth, that thou art one of the wholly pious, that through thee
God will destroy Egypt in time to come, lead His people out of the
land, and drown Pharaoh and his whole army in the sea."[96]
Thereupon Jethro gave much money to Moses, and he bestowed his daughter
Zipporah upon him as wife, giving her to him under the condition that
the children born of the marriage in Jethro's house should be divided
into two equal classes, the one to be Israelitish, the other Egyptian.
When Zipporah bore him a son, Moses circumcised him,[97] and called him
Gershom, as a memorial of the wonder God had done for him, for although
he lived in a "strange" land, the Lord had not refused him aid even
"there."[98]
Zipporah nursed her first child for two years, and in the third year
she bore a second son. Remembering his compact with Jethro, Moses
realized that his father-in-law would not permit him to circumcise this
one, too, and he determined to return to Egypt, that he might have the
opportunity of bringing up his second son as an Israelite. On the
journey thither, Satan appeared to him in the guise of a serpent, and
swallowed Moses down to his extremities. Zipporah knew by this token
that the thing had happened because her second son had not been
circumcised, and she hastened to make good the omission. As soon as she
sprinkled the blood of the circumcision on her husband's feet, a
heavenly voice was heard to cry to the serpent, commanding him, "Spew
him out!" and Moses came forth and stood upon his feet. Thus Zipporah
saved Moses' life twice, first from the pit and then from the
serpent.[99]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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