When the LORD Seeks to Kill Moses: Reading Exodus 4.24–26 in its Literary Context

Abstract

Exodus 4.24–26 is laconic, ambiguous, and saturated with interpretive challenges. Scholars have typically focused on issues such as what practices or rituals might be behind the text in order to explain Zipporah's actions, as well as on the presumed guilt that elicits the attack, and on explaining how her actions avert the attack. This article focuses instead on its literary place and role by attending to the literary connections both in the immediate context, in the larger context of Exodus 1–14, and in the wider canonical context. This study shows that this passage, with and through its ambiguities, serves the larger rhetorical aim of Exodus 1–14 as God is in a contest with Pharaoh for sovereignty over Israel and over Moses, and as Moses’ identity is being defined as God's chosen deliverer. This literary reading is confirmed through the close connections observed with Genesis 22 and 32 and Numbers 22.