Tale of Two Wives

Moses (also known as Moshe Rabbenu) is the most important Prophet in Judaism, and an important Prophet in Christianity, Islam, the Bahá?í Faith, and a number of other Abrahamic religions.

Several mysteries in his life leave experts baffled. The Bible does not explicitly say that Moses had more than one wife. However, (Numbers 12:1) leads many to surmise another wife.

Interpretations differ on whether Moses’ Cushite wife was one and the same as his Midianite wife and mother of their two sons, Gershom and Eliezer; or another, and whether he was actually married to them simultaneously (which would make him a polygamist) or successively.

Despite the many ambiguities, fate of the sons of Moses is also theologically controversial, as they disappear from history!

Cushites (or Kushites) were of the ancestry of either Kush (a.k.a. Nubia) in northeast Africa, or Arabians. The sons of Ham, mentioned within the Book of Genesis, have been identified with nations in Africa (Ethiopia, Egypt, Libya), the Levant (Canaan), and Arabia.

Midianites themselves were later on depicted at times in non-Biblical sources as dark-skinned and called Kushim, a Hebrew word used for dark-skinned Africans.

One interpretation is that wife Zipporah was referred to as a Cushite though she was a Midianite, because of her dark beauty.

The Samaritan Pentateuch text refers to Moses' wife Zipporah as "Kaashet" (which translates to "the beautiful woman"), rather than "Cushit" ("black woman" or "Cushite woman"). Therefore, the Samaritan sages came to the understanding that Moses married only one wife, and once he became absolutely devoted to his prophetic mission he never got married again.

In the Druze religion, Jethro is revered as the spiritual founder, chief prophet, and ancestor of all Druze. Moses was allowed to wed Zipporah, his daughter, after helping save his daughters and their flock from competing herdsmen.

It has been expressed by prominent Druze such as Amal Nasser el-Din, an Israeli author and former politician who served as a member of the Knesset, and Druze leader Sheikh Salman Tarif, that this makes the Druze related to the Jews through marriage. This view has been used to represent an element of the special relationship between Israeli Jews and Druze.

Moses lived a long, full life during an exciting and eventful period of history. A strange chapter of his life deals with his two wives, a situation that sparked the events of (Numbers 12).

The story begins sometime during the first forty-year period of his life, during the time before he fled to Midian.

Ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, II.10.1-2) records that, as a general of Egypt, Moses was sent with an army to turn back an Ethiopian incursion into Egypt. Having done that in a decisive battle, he took the offensive, gaining victory after victory. Finally, he laid siege to their royal city, Saba. Because Saba was highly fortified and situated on an island, it was nearly impregnable, and this worried Moses. However, before a long siege could reduce both morale and his army's strength, the Ethiopians offered him a deal. Josephus writes:

“Tharbis was the daughter of the King Merops of the Ethiopians: she happened to see Moses as he led the army near the walls, and fought with great courage; and admiring the subtlety of his undertakings, and believing him to be the author of the Egyptians' success, . . . she fell deeply in love with him; and upon the prevalence of that passion, sent to him the most faithful of all her servants to discourse with him about their marriage. He thereupon accepted the offer, on condition she would procure the delivering up of the city; and gave her the assurance of an oath to take her to his wife; and that when he had once taken possession of the city, he would not break his oath to her. No sooner was the agreement made, but it took effect immediately; and when Moses had cut off the Ethiopians, he gave thanks to God, and consummated his marriage, and led the Egyptians back to their own land. (2:252-253)

Several years later, Moses fled from Egypt after killing the Egyptian. He was a fugitive, a wanted man. His Ethiopian wife, no longer in favor among the Egyptians, likely returned to her native land.

Forty years passed while Moses led Jethro's flocks, during which he took Zipporah as his wife and fathered two sons. Then, after the Pharaoh's death, God called Moses to be His Prophet and sent him back to Egypt.

The subsequent events—Moses' demands of Pharaoh, the plagues, the Exodus, and the Red Sea crossing—did not occur in a vacuum. Word of Egypt's devastation and humiliation raced through the surrounding countries. News would quickly reach Ethiopia that their conqueror, Moses, was alive and leading a new army of Israelites.

It is not improbable that his Cushite Ethiopian wife, now upwards of her mid-fifties, returned to Egypt to rejoin her husband. Evidently, arriving after the Israelites had already entered the wilderness, she followed their trail until she finally caught up with them at Hazeroth, and proclaimed herself to be Moses' wife.

What an uproar that caused! We see in (Numbers 12) that it got Aaron and Miriam into deep trouble with God because they criticized Moses for a sin he committed long before he was converted.

As for Zipporah, she, too, would have been displeased to find out Moses had an Cushite wife (unless Moses had told her of his life in Egypt). The Bible does not give her reaction. (Exodus 18:1-3) shows that Zipporah, though she did not participate in the Exodus from Egypt, rejoined Moses at Sinai, so she was probably there when all the events occurred in (Numbers 12), unless Zipporah had died in the journey.

These are intriguing stories, pieced together from the sparse historical evidence that remains of those times. Much of them is historical conjecture, but they are engaging nonetheless…

Food for thought!