A Persuasive Interpretation of a Difficult Text: Exodus 4:24-26

The third essay in Hebrew Studies 48 (2007) is by Christopher Hays of Emory University. Entitled “'Lest Ye Perish in the Way’: Ritual and Kinship on Exodus 4:24-26," the article is a model of methodological rigor. The interpretation Hays offers draws heavily upon comparative data from the ancient Near East and works within standard historical-critical parameters. At the same time, Hays evaluates the various traditional interpretations of the passage with insight and adopts them where appropriate. The result is a one-two punch that delivers a knock-out interpretation of a passage which has eluded understanding in the past.

HS 48 (2007) is hot off the press. For reviews of its first and second essays, go here and here.

Here is the relevant text, Exodus 4:19-20a, 24-26 (verses 20b-23 are a digression that can safely be set to one side):

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה בְּמִדְיָן

 לֵךְ שֻׁב מִצְרָיִם

 כִּי־מֵתוּ כָּל־הָאֲנָשִׁים הַמְבַקְשִׁים אֶת־נַפְשֶׁךָ

וַיִּקַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ וְאֶת־בָּנָיו

וַיַּרְכִּבֵם עַל־הַחֲמֹר

וַיָּשָׁב אַרְצָה מִצְרָיִם

. . .

וַיְהִי בַדֶּרֶךְ בַּמָּלוֹן

וַיִּפְגְּשֵׁהוּ יְהוָה

וַיְבַקֵּשׁ הֲמִיתוֹ

וַתִּקַּח צִפֹּרָה צֹר

וַתִּכְרֹת אֶת־עָרְלַת בְּנָהּ

וַתַּגַּע לְרַגְלָיו וַתֹּאמֶר

כִּי חֲתַן־דָּמִים אַתָּה לִי

 

וַיִּרֶף מִמֶּנּוּ

אָז אָמְרָה חֲתַן דָּמִים לַמּוּלֹת

YHWH said to Moses in Midian,

Go and return to Egypt,

for all the men who sought your life are dead.

And Moses took his wife and sons,

mounted them on an ass,

and went back to the land of Egypt.

 

On the way, at a night encampment,

YHWH attacked him

and sought to kill him.

Zipporah took a flint,

cut off the foreskin of her son,

touched his feet with it, and said,

For you are a blood relative to me.

 

And he let him alone.

She said “a blood relative” at the time in reference to circumcision.

 

Hays interprets YHWH’s aggression in light of a meme found elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible:

The encounter “on the way” is a reminder that it is dangerous to be close to God. And this is neither a coincidence nor a contradiction. Readers who do not perceive this in the canon will miss the menace of God’s words in Lev 10:3: “Through those who are near me I will show myself holy.” . . . The function of Exod 4:21-23 (in its narrative context) is to remind Moses of what was affirmed so often in Genesis: that the Lord who is the God of life may also threaten life. He gave it to the patriarchs in the form of childbirth, yet required acknowledgement of his gifts; his command that Abraham sacrifice Isaac was such a test. Despite his covenant with Abraham, he asked the same of him that he asked of Pharaoh: that he recognize his lordship over life. And for each of them, it was a costly recognition.

The more broadly one looks at the Hebrew Bible, the more this unsparing equity appears characteristic: God can be just as dangerous to who are near him as those who are against him. . . . One could also mention Job, who suffers despite being the servant and pride of God. . . . The story of YHWH’s attack on Moses undermines theologies that seek to tame God’s incomprehensible aspects, or to keep God safely “on our side” (cf. Josh 5:13-14). God’s ways may sometimes be so different from human reason (Isa 55:8) as to seem wild or demonic, but these too are faces of the divine. (p. 54)

The “unsparing equity of God” is a theme that runs through Scripture like a red thread. But Hays’ conclusions that Zipporah applies the blood to the feet of YHWH and addresses YHWH with the words, “You are kin to me by blood,” are of greater interest still. His arguments, which I will not summarize here, are cogent. It leads him to argue that the blood of circumcision no less than the blood of the Paschal lamb – just as Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer teaches! – seen by God, leads to God’s forgiveness of Israel’s sins. The blood covers and protects.[1]

Like the blood sprinkled at YHWH’s feet on Yom Kippur - on the kapporet, a stand-in for the ark, YHWH’s footstool, YHWH who was seated on the cherubim throne, invisibly but actually present; like the blood of sacrifice dashed on the sides of the altar; like the blood of the lamb smeared on lintels on Passover, the blood of circumcision has an apotropaic or protective function. It wards off evil. It is a material equivalent of the traditional prayer, “Deliver us from evil”; more extensively, of the preserved text of Ketef Hinnom II (late pre-exilic period):

ב̇ר̇כ̇ ה̇[א] ליהו̇[ה]

ה̇ע̇זר ו̇ה̇ג̇ער ב̇[ר]ע̇

יברכ̇ יהוה י̇שמרכ

י̇אר יה[ו]ה פניו̇ [אל]יכ

ו̇י̇שמ לכ ש̇[ל]מ̇

Blessed be he/she by YHWH,

the helper and rebuker of evil.

 

May YHWH bless, may he protect you!

May YHWH make his face shine upon you,

and grant you peace![2]

---

[1] Hays draws attention to apotropaic actions such as sevenfold sprinkling and painting doors with various substances in the Mesoptamian namburbu texts (p. 46).

[2] G. Barkay, A. G. Vaughn, M. J. Lundberg, B. Zuckerman, “The Amulets from Ketef Hinnom: A New Edition and Evaluation,” BASOR 334 (2004) 41-71; 68. Letters with a dot above them are incompletely preserved letters whose identification is nonetheless relatively certain.

Comments

[Bob MacDonald]

no comments eh? I love this text - like psalm 58, it is not part of any regular liturgy - as one man said to me last night at Ahmal - selective truth.

[Christopher Hays]

Thanks for the kind words about my article, John. I enjoy your blog-- this is not my first visit here.

[JohnFH]

Thanks for dropping by, Christopher.

I saw a notice of a paper by you with the title, "A Chalcedonian approach to the Bible," or some such. That sounds really interesting. I look forward to seeing what else you have in store.