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Exodus 4 · a question people ask

Why did the LORD want to kill Moses on the way to Egypt?

In the text

The passage is only three verses long and gives no reason in so many words. "On the way at a lodging place, the LORD met Moses and wanted to kill him" (4:24). Zipporah "took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son", and "So he let him alone" (4:25-26). What the text does show is how it ended: after the circumcision the LORD let him alone, and Zipporah's words were said "because of the circumcision" (4:26). God had made circumcision the sign of his covenant with Abraham's family and said, "The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant" (Genesis 17:14), but Exodus 4 doesn't say that this is the reason. Much is left unsaid: the Hebrew of 4:24 says only that the LORD met "him" (the World English Bible supplies the name Moses), and 4:25 doesn't say whose feet.

The verses

“On the way at a lodging place, the LORD met Moses and wanted to kill him. Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” So he let him alone. Then she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.”
Exodus 4:24-26 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Exodus 4

Exodus 4: The people believed

Moses was sure Israel wouldn't believe him, and the chapter ends "The people believed." His "slow" tongue is in Hebrew a heavy one, the same word later used for Pharaoh's stubborn heart. God promised "I will be with your mouth", sent Aaron already on his way, and before the first plague warned Pharaoh, "Israel is my son, my firstborn", and "I will kill your firstborn son."

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions