Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III:

 

 

You wrote:  “There is nothing in the immediate context that Zipporah is from Midian, the Hurrian state of Mittani. That is eisegesis of which most of your posts have been very guilty of.”

 

 

1.  First and foremost, let me note that you and I  a-g-r-e-e  as to the basic nature of what’s going on at Exodus 4: 25.

 

 

2.  But the story only makes good sense if Moses’ wife Zipporah is, unlike Moses, from a part of the world that abhorred circumcision.  Otherwise, why wouldn’t Gershom have been circumcised as a matter of course?

 

 

3.  As to whether Zipporah is from MDYN, the Hurrian state of Mitanni, here is the Biblical evidence:

 

 

(a)  It’s certain that Zipporah is from MDYN, that Moses marries her in MDYN, and that they reside in MDYN for some time after their marriage:

 

 

“Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of MDYN:  and he sat down by a well.  Now the priest of MDYN had seven daughters.  …And he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.”  Exodus 2: 15, 16, 21

 

 

(b)  All of the names of Moses’ in-laws, such as Zipporah, Jethro, Hobab, Heber, Jael, etc., appear to be Hurrian names, not west Semitic names.  That fits in perfectly with MDYN being Mitanni, the Hurrian homeland.  The only exception is that on rare occasion, Moses’ father-in-law is called “Reu-el”, which is the Hebrew version of his Hurrian name “Jethro”.  On one occasion, apparently by scribal error, Jethro is called “Jether”, with “Jether” being a perfectly good Hebrew name that is borne by many Hebrew men in the Bible.  But no person who is a Hebrew at birth is called Jethro or Zipporah or Hobab.

 

 

(c)  Nothing from Genesis through II Kings undercuts MDYN as being northern Mesopotamia, which the older Biblical authors recognize as being the Late Bronze Age Hurrian state of Mitanni.  For example, Balaam is agreed by all to come from northern Mesopotamia (see Deuteronomy 23: 4), and Balaam is killed right along with the 5 princelings of MDYN at Numbers 31: 8.

 

 

(d)  The linguistic match of MDYN to Mitanni is perfect.  MDYN renders Mi-ta-a-ni, where (i) the Hurrian root verb is mid-, spelled with a D, hence the dalet/D in the Hebrew spelling, and (ii) as with Hebrew yod/Y rendering Hurrian A as its own separate segment in XTY = Xuti-a for “Uriah the Hittite”, so also the Hebrew yod/Y in MDYN represents the Hurrian true vowel A as its own separate segment.  Mi-ta-a-ni has four cuneiform segments, and that’s why MDYN has four Hebrew letters.

 

 

4.   The Bible is much older and more historically accurate than university scholars realize.  The Hurrian state of Mitanni went out of existence in the 13^th century BCE.  Yet the Bible is full of accurate references to that ancient Hurrian state in eastern Syria, complete with accurately-spelled Hurrian personal names consistently being associated with MDYN/Mitanni.  As just one example, at Numbers 31: 8 the name of one of the princelings from MDYN is XWR.  That’s the attested Hurrian man’s name Xu-ú-ra.  The Hebrew vav/W there represents the accented Hurrian true vowel U in this 3-segment name, which naturally has 3 Hebrew letters.  The personal name Xu-ú-ra clearly recalls Mitanni and the Hurrians, and has nothing to do with southwestern Arabia.

 

 

5.  The erroneous view that the Bible non-historically views MDYN as being an unattested name of a region in southwestern Arabia derives solely, as to books in the Bible preceding Isaiah, from mistakenly thinking that XRB-H at Exodus 3: 1 is an explicit reference to Mt. Sinai in the southern Sinai, near southwestern Arabia.  But nothing could be farther from the truth.  XRB is used over 40 times as a Hebrew common word throughout the Bible, and at Exodus 3: 1 XRB-H  is used as a Hebrew common word with the following generic meaning:  “to the true desert”.  That common word does not mandate a reference to Mt. Sinai, and in context the awe-inspiring, divine-like mountain in question in the desert there must be located just south of Mitanni, thus being Jabal al-Druze just north of the eastern Transjordan, and cannot be Mt. Sinai in southern Sinai.  Yes, much of the Exodus takes place near Mt. Sinai in the southern Sinai.  But that’s not where Moses’ in-laws are from!  Rather, Zipporah, Jethro and the rest of Moses’ in-laws are [unlike Moses himself] ethnic Hurrians with classic Hurrian names, who hail from the Late Bronze Age Hurrian state of Mitanni/MDYN in eastern Syria.

 

 

Being from that part of the world, and having a Kassite connection as well [per Numbers 12: 1], it’s no real surprise that Zipporah was not keen on having her son Gershom circumcised.  I agree with you that it was Moses’ responsibility to make sure that Gershom was circumcised, and that YHWH was mightily displeased at Moses’ failure to be more forceful in that regard.

 

 

Jim Stinehart