• Zipporah
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • ZIPPORAH

      (Zip·poʹrah) [swallow].

      The wife of Moses. Zipporah met Moses at a well, when she and her six sisters were watering their father’s flocks. When certain shepherds came on the scene and, as was their custom, attempted to drive the girls away, Moses helped the girls out, even watering the flocks himself. For this kindness he was invited to the home of Zipporah, and eventually her priestly father Jethro gave her in marriage to Moses. (Ex. 2:16-21) Zipporah bore two sons to Moses, Gershom and Eliezer.—Ex. 2:22; 18:3, 4.

      When Jehovah sent Moses back to Egypt, Zipporah and their two sons started out to accompany him. Along the way a very serious incident occurred, the rather obscure account of which says: “Now it came about on the road at the lodging place that Jehovah [LXX, “the angel of the Lord”] got to meet him and kept looking for a way to put him to death. Finally Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and caused it to touch his feet and said: ‘It is because you are a bridegroom of blood to me.’ Consequently he let go of him. At that time she said: ‘A bridegroom of blood,’ because of the circumcision.”—Ex. 4:24-26.

      Scholars have offered many interpretations of this passage, some of these being incorporated into modern Bible translations. (See CC, JB, Kx, La, NE [1970 ed.], RS, as well as the German Zürcher Bibel, the Spanish Bover-Cantera and the French Crampon, Lienart and Segond versions.) Such interpretations attempt to settle questions as to whether it was Moses’ or the child’s life that was threatened, whether Zipporah touched the feet of Moses or the feet of the child or the feet of the angel with the foreskin. They also venture opinions as to why Zipporah said (and to whom she said), “You are a bridegroom of blood to me.”

      As an example, one might reason that it was the child’s life that was in danger in view of what the law of circumcision states at Genesis 17:14; that Zipporah, rather than Moses, circumcised the child to show she was abandoning any Midianitish opposition to circumcision she may have had; that she cast the foreskin at the feet of the angel who was threatening the child’s life to demonstrate her compliance with Jehovah’s law; that Zipporah addressed Jehovah through his representative angel when she exclaimed, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me,” doing so to show her acceptance of a wifely position in the circumcision covenant with Jehovah as the husband.—See Jeremiah 31:32.

      But however logical such reasoning may appear, there is no way of Scripturally settling such questions with certainty. The fact remains, the literal reading of the ancient Hebrew in this passage is veiled in the idioms used nearly 3,500 years ago. This is why literal translations (NW, Ro, Yg) and others (AS, AV, Da, Dy, JP [1962 ed.], Mo, Le), including the ancient Septuagint, are not clear on these matters.

      Apparently Zipporah made a return visit to her parents, for, following the Exodus, Zipporah and her two sons accompanied Jethro back to Moses at the wilderness camp. (Ex. 18:1-6) Zipporah’s newly felt presence there apparently provoked Moses’ sister Miriam to jealousy, and she (along with Aaron) seized upon Zipporah’s Cushite background as an excuse for complaint against Moses. (Num. 12:1) This does not indicate that Zipporah had died and Moses had remarried an Ethiopian woman, as is commonly contended, for, although “Cushite” usually refers to Ethiopians, it can also embrace those from Arabia.—See CUSH No. 2; CUSHITE.

  • Zither
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • ZITHER

      The Bible gives no description of the musical instrument designated by the Aramaic word qi·tha·rosʹ (or, qath·rohsʹ), but it was probably a type of stringed instrument. If this term is related to the Greek ki·thaʹra (a stringed instrument), from which a number of English words, including “zither,” are drawn, then “zither” is an approximate transliteration. The qi·tha·rosʹ was one of the instruments of Nebuchadnezzar’s orchestra.—Dan. 3:5, 7, 10, 15.

  • Ziv
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • ZIV

      The name of the second lunar month of the sacred calendar, but the eighth of the secular calendar of the Israelites. (1 Ki. 6:1, 37) It corresponds to part of April and part of May. In commenting on 1 Kings 6:1, the Soncino Books of the Bible (Volume of First and Second Kings, p. 39) says concerning the month of Ziv: “Now known as Iyyar, the second month after Nisan. It was called Ziv (brightness) because it falls at the time of the year when the earth is ‘brightened’ with blossoms and flowers.” The name “Iyyar” is found in the Jewish Talmud and other postexilic works.

      By this month the barley harvest has reached up into the hill country and the wheat harvest is under way in the lowlands. The hills of Galilee are ablaze with flowers. The dry season begins during this month, and the early morning clouds soon disappear in the heat of the day. During this time the plants depend upon the nightly dews that form, and await the end of the dry season in October.—Hos. 6:4; Isa. 18:4.

      The fourteenth day of Ziv provided a second opportunity for the Israelites to celebrate the Passover in the event they had been prevented from doing so on Nisan 14, owing to absence or ceremonial uncleanness.—Num. 9:9-13; 2 Chron. 30:2, 3.

      It was in the month of Ziv that Solomon began the construction of the temple, and nearly five hundred years later in the same month, Zerubbabel initiated the work of rebuilding the temple.—1 Ki. 6:1; Ezra 3:8.

  • Ziz
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • ZIZ

      [shining plate, blossom].

      A pass by which the armies of Moab, Ammon and the Ammonim came against Judah during the reign of Jehoshaphat (c. 937-911 B.C.E.). It is usually identified with Wadi Hasasa, about ten miles (c. 16 kilometers) SE of the suggested site of Tekoa and some seven miles