The Cushite Wife of Moses

Where to find the story of the Cushite wife of Moses?

The nameless woman known only as the Cushite woman is found in Numbers 12:1.

The Cushite woman tells her story.

Mariam and Arron were so angry that Moses married me.  They had a terrible fight.  Mariam became very ill as a result.

Observations on the Cushite woman.

Was the Cushite woman  Zipporah the wife mentioned in Exodus?  She is said to be from the land of Midian.  Did Moses have two wives?  Why were Mariam and Arron so angry that Moses had married a Cushite?  

In Numbers 25:1-8 the grandson of Arron kills an Israelite man and a Midianite woman.  The man is said to have brought her into his family.  They may have been having sex because they are in the tent and both are stabbed through the belly.  

"Since Cush is the Hebrew term for Ethiopia or Nubia, some say that this woman was black." 

(Winter, Miriam Therese; Woman Wisdom, 1993)

Like so many biblical women all we know about her is how she figures into the story of the male biblical hero. 

Following is an interesting video about the Cushite wife of Moses.  

Zipporah, the Wife of Moses

 Zipporah, Moses' Wife

What was life like for Zipporah?  She was not a Hebrew.  She practiced another religion.  At some point she was sent out of Egypt back to her father and only returned to her husband after he had led the Hebrews out of Egypt.
Her story can be found in Exodus 2:15-22; 4:18-20, 24-26 and 18:1-7

 Zipporah tells her story.

My father gave me to the Egyptian after he came to live with us.  He had helped us at the well when the shepherds would not let us water our father's flocks and my father was grateful. We had two sons.  
My husband was always concerned about the lives of the people he had left in Egypt.  When I met him I thought he was an Egyptian but he was a Hebrew by birth. He took me and the children with him on his return to Egypt.  On the way he became very ill.  He felt like God wanted him dead because he and his sons were not circumcised.  In his religion circumcision of the male is a sign of their covenant with God.  I circumcised my sons and told my husband, "Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!"
We did not stay in Egypt.  We were sent back to my father.  It was many years before I saw my husband.

Observations on Zippora

Unlike many biblical wives, Zippora has a name.  She also has a voice.  When I read her story I am reminded of the many military wives who endure long separations from their husbands.  Women who raise their children with the help of other family members and undergo difficult times that many of us cannot imagine.  I know that there are men who experience these separations as well, but this is Zippora's story.

Rembering the Women of Passover

On the 25th and 26th of March the Jewish community and many Christian communities celebrated Passover.  The names of Moses and his brother Arron are the most remembered during Passover.  But there are women, without whom there would have been no Moses.  First, there are the midwives Shiphrah and Prah.  (Exodus 1: 15-21)  They disobeyed the king's command to kill every Hebrew baby boy. Then there was the mother of Moses, Arron and Mariam.  She hid her son for three months.  Mariam is the brave girl who hides in the reeds along the river to keep an eye on her baby brother.  She negotiates with the daughter of the king to allow her mother to nurse her own baby and get paid for it.  (Exodus 2:1-10)  In Exodus 15:20-21 she is called the prophet Mariam and leads the women in song and dance praising God.  As the 2007 edition of The New Oxford Annotated Bible states in the explanation of this text, "As women were the first to resist Pharaoh and save Moses' life it is especially fitting that women also get the last word in the story of liberation." Finally, in Micah 6:4 Mariam is included with Moses and Arron as a leader of the people. Remember the women named and unnamed who figure in the development of Judaism and Christianity.