I am taking a Bible Study class on the “Bad Girls of the Bible” and have a question.\u00a0 There is speculation that Moses may have had a second wife.\u00a0 When referring to his Cushite wife, isn’t that Zipporah?\u00a0 I have been unable to find any evidence of another wife other than the verse in Exodus that talks of his Cushite wife.\u00a0 What research I have done states that Zipporah was in fact a Cushite although there is nothing I can find in the Bible to verify that.\u00a0 Would she be a Midianite?\u00a0 I hope this isn’t a dumb question, but I have never heard of this issue until now.\u00a0 Thank you for any help on this.<\/p>\n
God bless.<\/p>\n\t
“Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. Then the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. When they came to Reuel their father, he said, “How is it that you have come so soon today?” … Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses<\/em>” (Exodus 3:16-18, 21).<\/p>\n
“Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman<\/em>” (Numbers 12:1).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ethiopia, also known as Cush after its founder, is the country south of Egypt. Like Egypt, its borders fluctuate over the years and sometimes included the Sinai Peninsula (II Chronicles 21:16; Habakkuk 3:7). The supposition is that Reuel actually descended from Cush and that he was in this region because Ethiopia had at times occupied the region and he descended from one of those occupiers. However, Reuel is called a Midianite in Numbers 10:29, so it makes this argument unlikely.<\/p>\n
Another possibility is that by the time of Numbers 12, which took place in the wilderness wanderings, that Zipporah had died and Moses remarried, this time to an Ethiopian woman. It is noticeable that Zipporah’s name is not mentioned again after Exodus 18, which is before the Law was given on Mt. Sinai. It would also explain why Miriam and Aaron’s contention against Moses on this point was only now brought up years into the wilderness wanderings. This second scenario fits the facts better.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I am taking a Bible Study class on the “Bad Girls of the Bible” and have a question.\u00a0 There is speculation that Moses may have had a second wife.\u00a0 When referring to his Cushite wife, isn’t that Zipporah?\u00a0 I have been unable to find any evidence of another wife other than the verse in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[485],"class_list":["post-31507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-moses"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":82183,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-there-no-black-people-in-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":31507,"position":0},"title":"Why are there no black people in the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are there no black people in the Bible? Why don't the people have black names? Answer: There are people mentioned in the Bible whose skin color would have been dark. Moses' wife, who was from Cush (Numbers 12:1) An unnamed Cushite runner (II Samuel 18:21) Tirhakah king of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61158,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-was-god-about-to-kill-moses\/","url_meta":{"origin":31507,"position":1},"title":"Why Was God About To Kill Moses?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton The text of Exodus 4:24-26 seems oddly placed, but it is a separate paragraph from the rest of the text. Moses has been commissioned to go back to Egypt where the Israelites are and tell Pharaoh to free them. Moses thought of excuse after excuse, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20412,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/explaining-exodus-424-26\/","url_meta":{"origin":31507,"position":2},"title":"Explaining Exodus 4:24-26","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Carey Scott \"And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the LORD met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses' feet, and said, \"Surely you are a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7419,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-does-the-bible-state-that-moses-stoned-a-woman-who-committed-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":31507,"position":3},"title":"Where does the Bible state that Moses stoned a woman who committed adultery?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In the new movie the Ten Commandments. Moses throws the first stone at a woman that committed adultery. Where is this stated in the book of Exodus? Answer: While I'm glad that Hollywood every once in a while decides to make a movie about decent subjects, I personally hate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":730,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-bible-talk-about-asking-a-father-for-his-daughters-hand-in-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":31507,"position":4},"title":"Does the Bible talk about asking a father for his daughter’s hand in marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is there any biblical background to making sure someone who is dating or is going to marry someone must have the father's permission of the daughter? Answer: In the course of recording the lives of various people, the Bible does mention how men and women came together to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38902,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-jew-had-divorced-and-married-another-prior-to-jesus-death-would-he-have-to-put-away-his-new-wife-before-being-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":31507,"position":5},"title":"If a Jew had divorced and married another prior to Jesus’ death, would he have to put away his new wife before being baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you for taking my question. If there had been Jewish men on the day of Pentecost who had previously given their original wives a Bill of Divorcement and were now married to other women, would they have to put away the new wives before they were baptized? Thank\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}