SEPHORA

SEPHORA. - 1. (Heb. Siphrâh, Septuagint Σεπφωρά). One of the Hebrew midwives, whom Pharaoh ordered to kill the male Israelite newborns (Ex. 1, 15).

2. (Heb. Sippôrah, Septuagint Σεπφωρά). Iethro (v.), wife of Moses. On Moses’ return journey from Sinai to Egypt, she circumcised her son Gersom (cf. Ex. 4, 25 with 2, 21-22), perhaps subsequently to an illness of Moses himself, interpreted as punishment for the omission of the rite (ibid. 4, 24-26).

From what the text says later, it may be inferred that S., after this episode, or after arriving in Egypt, had returned

(by courtesy of the Superior of the House of the Everezi of the Sacred Heart - Rome)
HOLY SEPULCHRE - Façade of the shrine of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem.

with Gershom and another son, Eliezer (ibid. 18, 3 ff.), at her father’s home, who took them with him (and “reconciled” them?) when he went to meet Mosè on his arrival with the Israelites.

There is no reason to consider S. different from the “Cushite wife” of Mosè, as Maria and Aronne elsewhere call her (Num. 12, 1), with disparaging intent (hence one should not insist on the Cushite-Midianite opposition), on account of some personal disagreement. Giovanni Rinaldi