Exodus 4:24

Hebrew Bible

22 You must say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord has said, “Israel is my son, my firstborn, 23 and I said to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me,’ but since you have refused to let him go, I will surely kill your son, your firstborn!”’” 24 Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26 So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.)

LXX Exodus 4:24

Septuagint

22 And thou shalt say to Pharao, These things saith the Lord, Israel is my first-born. 23 And I said to thee, Send away my people, that they may serve me: now if thou wilt not send them away, see, I will slay thy first-born son. 24 And it came to pass that the angel of the Lord met him by the way in the inn, and sought to slay him. 25 And Sepphora having taken a stone cut off the foreskin of her son, and fell at his feet and said, The blood of the circumcision of my son is staunched: 26 and he departed from him, because she said, The blood of the circumcision of my son is staunched.

 Notes and References

"... A strange incident occurs on the way to Egypt (vv. 24–25). The angel of the Lord meets Mōusēs and threatens to kill him (v.24). Sepphōra intercedes by circumcising her son (v. 25), somehow averting her husband’s death. BS designates this among the more enigmatic pericopae in the Heb. Bible. It is not even mentioned by Philo or Josephus, and takes on new meaning in LXX Exod ... The subject is the ἄγγελος Κυρίου, “angel of the Lord.” This reading is affirmed by Targum, Targ Neof I (Targ Ps-J has “destroying angel”; cf. Jub. 48.2 where it is Mastemah; Propp 1999), though the MT reads יְהוָה and makes no mention of an “angel.” ..."

Gurtner, Daniel M. Exodus: A Commentary on the Greek Text of Codex Vaticanus (pp. 230-231) Brill, 2013

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