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.’

Exodus 4:20, 24-

Whose feet were touched when Zipporah cut off her son’s foreskin in an attempt to set matters straight? It was the angel of Jehovah who had the power to put the uncircumcised son to death. Logically, then, Zipporah would have caused the foreskin to touch the angel’s feet, presenting it to him as evidence that she had complied with the covenant.

Zipporah’s expression “you are a bridegroom of blood to me” is an unusual one. What does it indicate about her? By her compliance with the requirements of the circumcision covenant, Zipporah acknowledged a covenant relationship with Jehovah. The Law covenant later made with the Israelites showed that in a covenant relationship, Jehovah can be thought of as a husband and the other party as a wife. (Jeremiah 31:32) Hence, in addressing Jehovah (through his representative angel) as “a bridegroom of blood,” Zipporah appears to have been acknowledging her own submission to the terms of that covenant. It was as if she had accepted a wifely position in the circumcision covenant, with Jehovah God as the husband.