Numbers 12 · a question people ask
Who was the Cushite woman? Was she Zipporah?
The chapter doesn't name her. It says only that Moses "had married a Cushite woman" (12:1). The only wife of Moses named before this is Zipporah (Exodus 2:21), the daughter of "the priest of Midian" (Exodus 2:16), whom Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought to him in the wilderness (Exodus 18:2-6). Readers answer in two main ways. Both agree that the text gives no name, and that the LORD's answer doesn't speak of her at all, but of Moses as his servant (12:6-8).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
She was Zipporah
Some read the Cushite woman as Zipporah, since she is the only wife of Moses the Bible names (Exodus 2:21, 18:2). They note that Habakkuk sets Cushan beside Midian in one verse: "I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction. The dwellings of the land of Midian trembled" (Habakkuk 3:7). On this view, "Cushite" is another way of naming where she came from.
Exodus 2:21 · Exodus 18:2 · Habakkuk 3:7
She was a second wife
Others read her as a second wife, whom Moses married later. Zipporah (Exodus 2:21) is the daughter of "the priest of Midian" (Exodus 2:16), while Cush is the name of a son of Ham (Genesis 10:6) and of a land (Genesis 2:13). They read "for he had married a Cushite woman" (12:1) as telling something new.
Exodus 2:16 · Exodus 2:21 · Genesis 10:6 · Genesis 2:13 · Numbers 12:1
The verses
“Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.”
“Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.”
“Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter.”
“Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her away, and her two sons. The name of one son was Gershom, for Moses said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land”. The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my help and delivered me from Pharaoh’s sword.” Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with Moses’ sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of God. He said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her.””