Father-in-Law Yithro, the Sending Away of His Daughter Tziporah and the Midianite Debacle

Introduction

I found it intriguing that chronologically just before we receive the Ten Commandments, Moses’ Midianite father-in-law shows up.  He has with him Moses’ wife and her two sons, and she is specifically described as the wife who had been sent away (אַחַר, שִׁלּוּחֶיהָ) (Exodus 18:2).  Being curious, I have tried to piece together a narrative that explores the relationship between the various actors without relying on aggadic or midrashic sources, but trusting upon the plain meaning of the text.  It is clear to me that Moses’ association with the Midian leadership and his Midian wife was initially positive, this connection deteriorates over time, and in the end the Midianites are put to the sword.

Background

Moses is on the run (Exodus 2:15); he is wanted for murder. He finds his way to Midian, where he hides out.

In Midian, there is a priest or leader (depending how you translate כֹהֵן) called Yithro. He has seven daughters.  While the daughters are watering Yithro’s sheep, they have a dangerous confrontation with a number of local shepherds, who drive the daughters away.  Moses happens to be at the well. He intercedes and rescues the daughters from the intimidating shepherds.

Although Moses is an Egyptian fugitive, wanted for murder, Yithro invites him to dwell with him. Yithro also marries off one of the daughters, Tziporah, to Moshe the foreigner and wanted man.  Ostensibly this is not the best of shidachs for one’s daughter.  But maybe when you have seven daughters, you take what you can get.

At the revelation by the burning bush Moses is commanded by God to lead the Israelites out from Egypt.   Moses asks and receives permission from his father-in-law to return to Egypt. The reason given is that he wants to ascertain the well-being of his brethren.  There is no mention of his mission or that he is no longer sought after for murder.  Yithro just says, “Go in peace”.

So Moses took his wife Tziporah and his two sons and sets out for Egypt (Exodus 4:20).  They stop at an inn where they encounter God (yud-kay-vav-kay).  God seeks Moses’ death. Evidently, Moses has not circumcised at least one of his sons. To forestall Moses’ death, Tziporah instinctively circumcises one of her sons, confronts God, and Moses is not killed.  However, we later learn as discussed below that Moses sends her and the boys back home to Midian; they do not accompany him to Egypt.

The Sending away of Tziporah

The sending away of Tziporah is set out at the beginning of Parshah Yithro (Exodus 18:2).  We learn that sometime after the encounter with God at the inn, but before the revelation at Sinai, Moses had sent Tziporah and his children away. They were sent back to Yithro.  The sending away of Tziporah if not tantamount to a divorce is certainly a “legal separation”.  Not only is Yithro once again saddled with one his daughters, but her two sons as well.  Perhaps he thought that’s what you get for marrying her off to a felon.  But all that changes.

This happens when Yithro learns what God has done for Moses and for the Israelites, that Moses is their leader and that they left Egypt with great wealth.  He may have thought that if the Israelites left with great wealth, then surely my son-in-law who is the king of the Jews must have even greater wealth. Maybe it is time for Moses to take up again his responsibilities and for the king to be reunited with his family.

The Return of Tziporah

 Yithro informs Moses that he is coming to Moses along with Moses’ wife and “her” children.  Lest Moses has a memory lapse, Yithro reminds him frequently that he is Moses’ father-in-law.  And the family is once more reunited.  A dinner is held for Yithro; Aaron is there, but Moses is conspicuously absent.  Something may be wrong.

We know that Aaron and Miriam speak out against Tziporah (Numbers 12:1), maybe they never liked her.  The sons of Moses and Tziporah , in contrast to the children of Aaron, never amounted to much (Chronicles 23:14).  More meaningful is the passage in Numbers 3:1-4, which begins "These are the generations of Aaron and Moses" but goes on to list only the children of Aaron. 

And before receiving the Ten Commandments, Moses sends Yithro away (Exodus 18:27), and Yithro returns to Midian, “his land”.  Interesting enough, depending how you interpret the verses in Numbers 10:29-32, Yithro’s father or Moses’ brother-in-law or perhaps Yithro himself did stay or return to the camp of the Israelites.  Despite the request by Moses for the Midianites to remain with the Israelites and to be their eyes, they refuse and return to their homeland. 

There are Midrashim that tell of Moses no longer having sexual relations with Tzipora (Tanhuma, Zav 13 and Sifrei on Numbers, 99), and these Midrashim give good explanations for this matter.  However, maybe, and this is conjecture,  for whatever reason Moses did not like her, and that is why he sent her back to Midian in the first instance.  And it could very well be that Moses foresaw that in the near future he would instigate a war

Years later, prior to Moses’ death the relationship of the Israelites to the Midianites assumes catastrophic proportions.  The Midianites, in league with the tribe of Shimon attempt to destroy the moral framework of Israel as established by God and implemented by Moses. They stage an outright rebellion.  God declares Midian an enemy (Numbers 25:17).  He commands Moses to raise a special army for the specific purpose of warring against the Midianites, which Moses does, and during which the Israelites prevail (Numbers 31), slaughtering every adult male Midianite.  As for the tribe of Shimon, when a census is taken they are shown to have been reduced in number by more than half (Compare 59,300 in Numbers 1:23 to  22,200 in Numbers 26:14 ).

For Moses all things Midian, did not turn out well.  That includes his wife, his sons and his connection to the people of Midian.  As to the surviving Midianites, in the Book of Samuel they are referred to as the Kenites, and they lived side by side with the Amalekites, Israel’s mortal enemy (1 Samuel 15:16).