What Does the Bible Say About Moses' Family unit?

Zipporah, Gershom and Eleazer

And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his girl. And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a foreign land.

We know from Exodus 2:21 that Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of the Midianite priest, Jethro (also known as Reuel). Poesy 22 tells usa that Zipporah diameter Moses a son, whose name was Gershom.

The next mention of either Zipporah or Gershom is found in Exodus 4:xx, which says, "And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Eygpt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand." Although only one son (Gershom) had been mentioned in the initial account of Moses' marriage to Zipporah (Exodus two:21-22), evidently Eleazer (the second son) had been built-in during Moses' forty-year stay in Midian.

There is no biblical record of when or under what circumstances Zipporah and her two sons returned to her father (Jethro) from Egypt. However, many Bible commentators think that Moses sent his family unit back for safety. Post-obit is a quote from the Jamieson-Fausset-Chocolate-brown Commentary by Robert Jamieson concerning this.

"There is no express mention of Zipporah and her sons having been sent back to remain with her father. But information technology is certain that she was sent back; and whether, every bit the Jewish rabbis say, this was done by the advice of Aaron; whether the motive for it was a tender regard for the prophylactic of the family unit, to keep them away from the intensely agitating and engrossing scenes of the exodus, or, equally some suppose, a domestic feud, acquired by the circumcision of the younger son, had produced a sudden strife and alienation betwixt Moses and Zipporah, there is no doubt that she returned to sojourn nether her father'due south roof."

The next mention of Zipporah and her sons is establish in Exodus 18:2 where the account begins with Jethro taking Zipporah and her two sons, Gershom and Eleazer, dorsum to Moses "…in the wilderness, where he encamped at the Mount of God" (five. 5).

A farther passage referring to Moses' sons is i Chronicles 23:fourteen-xvi: "Thus, Moses' sons were ranked with the Levites mostly, merely not introduced in to the distinctive portion of the descendants of Levi who were appointed to the special functions of the priesthood." (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary, Vol. I, p. 498, Robert Jamieson).

Did Moses Have a Second Wife?

The only other reference found in the Bible pertaining to Moses' wife is found in Numbers 12:1. Is this a reference to Zipporah, his only recorded married woman, or does it refer to a new wife? Dr. Harold L. Willmington, in his commentary Numbers, in the Liberty Bible Commentary says: "The word 'Ethiopian' (Cushite) in verse 1 may indicate it was a new wife. If and so, she could have been either a foreigner saved out of Egypt with the Israelites, or a daughter of the Cushites dwelling in Arabia. At any charge per unit, neither marriage would have been wrong, for the prohibition in Exodus 34:16 referred merely to the Canaanites" (Liberty Bible Commentary, Vol. I. p. 277).

Dr. W. A. Criswell, in the Criswell Written report Bible, says: "It is possible Zipporah the Midianite was the only married woman Moses had and the terms "Cushan" and "Midian" may exist synonymous."

Whatever the case, there is no further reference in the Bible to either Moses' married woman, Zipporah, or his sons, Gershom and Eliezer. Nosotros do not know when or how they died.

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Dr. Elmer Towns is a college and seminary professor, an author of popular and scholarly works (the editor of 2 encyclopedias), a popular seminar lecturer, and dedicated worker in Sunday school, and has developed over 20 resource packets for leadership education.His personal education includes a B.S. from Northwestern Higher in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a 1000.A. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, a Thursday.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary also in Dallas, a MRE from Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and a D.Min. from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.He is co-founder of Freedom Academy, with Jerry Falwell, in 1971, and was the only full-time teacher in the showtime year of Liberty's being. Today, the University has over eleven,400 students on campus with 39,000 in the Altitude Learning Programme (at present Liberty Academy Online), and he is the Dean of the School of Faith.Dr. Towns has given theological lectures and taught intensive seminars at over fifty theological seminaries in America and abroad. He holds visiting professorship rank in five seminaries. He has written over 2,000 reference and/or popular articles and received six honorary doctoral degrees. Four doctoral dissertations have analyzed his contribution to religious educational activity and evangelism.