Bloody Bridegroom
Bloody bridegroom of a wife
he married as a refugee,
he fled from Egypt when his life
was threatened and in jeopardy
because a witness had observed
him killing a most cruel oppressor.
Some think that God thought he deserved
to meet his end as well, no lesser
the punishment for him than that
which he’d inflicted on another,
a man who’d acted like a rat
towards a Hebrew man, his brother.
But others think his punishment
was like what God made Jacob suffer,
escaping without God’s consent
a confrontation with his tougher
sibling, Esau, to avoid
bloodshed, hiding from his foe.
Because these tactics God annoyed,
an angel wounded Jacob’s bow,
and ever afterwards he limped
but, renamed Israel, he had learned
that confrontation can’t be crimped
and battles cannot be adjourned.
Like Jacob, Moses also fled
from God, and hoped to save his life
avoiding conflicts with a dread
that seemed pathetic to his wife,
though God commanded him: “Return
to Egypt, — Pharaoh do not fear!”
Hoping this command to spurn,
he preferred to disappear
from God and Egypt and the mission
God had just commanded him;
lacking leadership ambition,
he jeopardized both life and limb.
Like skipping bail, escaping from
the Lord is wrong; He’s not impartial,
and those who flee Him will succumb
when apprehended by His marshal.
A foreskin cut turned out to save
his life, yet who received the cut
and how did Moses misbehave
and when is most intriguing, but
we can’t be certain who, when, why,
because the case is very muddy,
a black hole darkening the sky
from which no light escapes. The bloody,
impenetrable tale remains
an unsolved mystery the Torah
appears to take the greatest pains
to hide, like darkness of Zipporah.
Exod. 4:24-26 states:
וַיְהִ֥י בַדֶּ֖רֶךְ בַּמָּל֑וֹן וַיִּפְגְּשֵׁ֣הוּ יְהֹוָ֔ה וַיְבַקֵּ֖שׁ הֲמִיתֽוֹ׃
At a night encampment on the way, יהוה encountered him and sought to kill him.
וַתִּקַּ֨ח צִפֹּרָ֜ה צֹ֗ר וַתִּכְרֹת֙ אֶת־עׇרְלַ֣ת בְּנָ֔הּ וַתַּגַּ֖ע לְרַגְלָ֑יו וַתֹּ֕אמֶר כִּ֧י חֲתַן־דָּמִ֛ים אַתָּ֖ה לִֽי׃
So Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched his legs with it, saying, “You are truly a bridegroom of blood to me!”
וַיִּ֖רֶף מִמֶּ֑נּוּ אָ֚ז אָֽמְרָ֔ה חֲתַ֥ן דָּמִ֖ים לַמּוּלֹֽת׃ {פ}
And when [God] let him alone, she added, “A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision.”
Moses’ failure to circumcise one of his sons when traveling to Egypt, a failure corrected by his Midianite wife Zipporah, foreshadows the failure of the Israelites to circumcise their sons from the time they left Egypt until they reached the land of Canaan (Josh. 5:5).