Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 4:25

25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone , and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet , and said, surely a bloody husband art thou to me .

Perceiving the danger of her Husband, and the cause of it, and her Husband being disenabled from performing that work, whether by some stroke or sickness, or by the terrour of so dismal and unexpected an apparition to him, and delays being highly dangerous, she thought it better to do it her self as well as she could, rather than put it off a moment longer; whether because the administration of that Sacrament was not confined to any kind or order of persons, or because, if it was so, she did not apprehend it to be so, or because she thought this was the least of two evils, and that it was safer to commit a circumstantial errour, then to continue in a substantial fault.

Which she took as next at hand in that stony Country, let none think this strange, for not onely this work, but the cutting off of that part, which some used to do [illegible: 1 word] commonly performed with a flint or a sharp stone, as is expresly affirmed by Hrodotus l. 2. Plin. 35. 12. See also Iuvenal Satyr. 6. and M[illegible: 1+ letters] tial. Epigram. 3. 18. But the word may be rendred. a sh[illegible: 1+ letters]p knife. See Ios. 5. 2, 3.

The words are very short and therefore ambiguous, and may be rendred, either thus, she cast her self at his feet, either 1. At the f[illegible: 1+ letters]et of the Angel, as a suppliant for her Husbands Life. But it is most probable that she directs this action and her following speech to the same person. Or 2. The feet of her husband, to make request to him that she and her children might depart from him and return to her Father, which also he granted. But neither was she of so humble a temper, nor at this time in so mild a frame, as to put her self into such a lowly posture to her Husband, nor was she likely to present her humble supplication to him to whom at the same time she shewed such scorn and indignation. Or rather thus she cast it at his, i. e. her Husbands feet: it, either the Child. But that being tender and now in great pain, she would not use it so roughly: Or rather the foreskin cut off, or at least the blood which came from it: Which she did in spight and anger against her Husband, as the cause of so much pain to the child and grief to her self.

This some think she spake to the Child, whom she calls her Spouse, as some late Rabbins affirm the Infant used to be called, when it was circumcised; though they bring no competent proof for this usage; or her Son, as the Hebrew word chathan signifies. But indeed that signifies onely a Son-in-law, as 1 Sam. 18. 18. which is not true nor proper here. Yet some make these to be the form or solemn words used in circumcision, thou art a spouse or a Son of bloods to me, i. e. made so to me by the blood of Circumcision. But it doth not appear that this was the usual form. Nor was it likely that she being a Midianitish, not an Hebrew Woman, and doing this suddenly and in a rage, should be so expert to know and so punctual to use the right form of words, when she did not use a fit and decent carriage in the action, as appears by her casting it at his feet. It is therefore more probable she spoke thus to her Husband. And because she durst not accuse God, the author of this work, she falls foul upon her Husband as the occasion of it, and as a costly and bloody Husband to her, whose endangered Life she was forced to redeem with blood, even the blood of her little Child, by which as he received a new Life after a sort, so she did anew and the second time espouse him; whence she calls him chatban which properly signifies a spouse, not an husband.

Marginal references: Or, knife.; Heb. made it touch.