Sajara

From Bible Gateway:
Umm...wtf? Okay, so 2 questions:
1) Why did the LORD almost kill Moses after he had /JUST/ met with him and told him to go talk to Pharoh?
2) Was it tradition to touch the circumsized foreskin to the father's feet in ancient times?

Deus Ex

I read somewhere that "feet" in this verse was a euphemism for penis. So we might have an even more bizarre tale about Zipporah touching Moses' privates with the foreskin from her son. That is seriously messed up! :huh:

rhutchin

Earlier, we read:

Genesis 17
9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

Moses had not circumcised his son and thus, was disobedient to God. As much as God had told Moses that He would use Moses to do great things, Moses was not indispensable for this purpose. This would suggest that Moses was not a very religious man, and apparently not of strong character, and the humility he expressed earlier was just to get out of doing what God wanted him to do. He was, it seems, unconcerned about going to the people of Israel, who would have circumcised their sons, and presenting himself as God's deliverer while having a son who he had not thought to circumcise. Moses was pretty inept but what can you expect from a guy raised by the Egyptians.

Don't know about the second question.

schriverja

Well, if you subscribe to the 'might makes right' "goodness" of God, God could do any old arbitrary thing he wants... Like have Job's children killed for a cosmic wager, ask Abe to kill Isaac to prove devotion, etc...

This passage is one of many that have me scratching my head...

rhutchin

Apparently, that which you have been reading is what is messed up and has messed you up. Feet means feet. Some take this to express Zipporah's attitude who, not being all that religious herself even though she seems to have recognized the problem, throws the flesh of her son at Moses' feet in disgust.

Jimmy Higgins

No fucking way. No fucking way! I was just telling my wife about that story for some reason last night. I was thinking of re-writing the story.

24 At a Red Roof Inn on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him for having an unmutilated penis. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin *YEOUCH!!!!!* and touched {Moses'} feet with it. 26 "Pwnage".
Not really, feet means genitals.
What?! Disgust? "Throws"? It says "place" or "touched". What is remarkable is that someone Zipporah had a clue what was needed to be done in the first place. I mean, the whole circumcision being the crux of the Hebrew people. Must have read it in a magazine or something. And wasn't this more about the fact Moses wasn't circumsized?

That and the whole, yeah, these three sentences are from way out of left field. You think God would have brought this issue up before trying to kill him in his sleep.

show_no_mercy

Egyptians practiced circumcision.

Jimmy Higgins

I think it was more than just the Egyptians. Wasn't it a not so uncommon custom around those parts? I mean the geography, not the dangling bits.

steamer

Why would god want a foreskin? WHY, WHY, WHY? How idiotic does the story have to get?

Maybe he just couldn't understand what the hell god wanted foreskins for.

Yes, very important for him to display his son's peepee to show how righteous he was.

Well when comparing Egyption culture to the Hebrews, I'd have to say the Hebrews never actually amounted to much.

Jimmy Higgins

steamer, your reply is a bit juvenile. There are certainly issues with this short detour in Exodus, but you hardly raise any of them.

Circumcision is one of the founding principles of the covenant between god and the Hebrews. So clearly circumcision isn't exactly a surprise.

What is a surprise however is the illogic the entire detour has.

• Moses isn't religious... yet somehow the choosen one?
• Moses isn't religious and doesn't circumcise his son?
• Zipporah somehow knows about circumcision despite her son and possibly even husband not being circumcised.
• Why is none of this raised earlier during the burning bush dialogue?
• It'd appear that Moses isn't circumcised himself, otherwise why would Zipporah place the foreskin on his own genitals... as per some symbolic act?