By Water & Blood

Questions on Exodus 14: Why the angel wished to kill Moses

Why did the angel wish to kill Moses?

The wife guessed it was because one of the two children had not been circumcised according to the law of the Hebrews; at once, then, she brought him circumcision. But some say it was because, sent for the freedom of his kinsfolk, he had his spouse as companion of the journey. They ought to have understood that, wishing to persuade his father-in-law that he would not despise his wife nor prefer another to her, he was compelled to take her—not as serving the divine command contemptuously. At once, taking occasion from the angel, he ordered the wife to return to her own people. And that this is true, the history teaches: for after the exodus from Egypt, when they had crossed the sea and come to Mount Sinai, the father-in-law arrived with the wife. The history speaks thus: “And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after her dismissal, and his two sons, and came to Moses in the wilderness.”

Therefore the angel, arranging something else, showed the bare sword. For since the great Moses feared Pharaoh and often made this fear clear—now saying, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh king of Egypt?”; now, “Appoint another able one whom you will send”; and again, “I am weak-voiced and slow of tongue”—the angel threatens him with punishment, driving out fear by fear, the lesser by the greater; almost saying through the bare sword: if you fear Pharaoh, fear me more, who can also invisibly inflict the blow upon you.