Commentaria in Exodum
The fourth cause is given by Goropius, bk. v, Origines Antwerpianae: Of old, he says, suppliants fell down at the knees so as to kiss the thigh, as if to signify that they sought life from the place whence they had received it: for the seed, and consequently offspring and posterity, have their origin from the loins and thigh. So therefore Sephora, by touching her husband’s feet, showed love and reverence to him, and consequently to the angel, whom she wished by this means to appease and to reconcile to her husband, and implored his mercy and power, that she might obtain life for her husband; for in place of the angel’s feet (which she dared not touch) she embraced her husband’s feet.
A BLOODY SPOUSE ART THOU TO ME.—It is strange why the Septuagint rendered, the blood of my son stood. The Chaldee clearly renders: Sephora offered the foreskin before him, the angel, and said: “On account of the blood of this circumcision (namely neglected and not shed) my spouse was condemned to death.”
R. Abraham refers these words to the circumcised boy, as if the mother, applauding the child now circumcised, said: Thou art to me a spouse of blood; for the Hebrews relate that it was a custom among the Hebrews to call their sons, when circumcised, their spouses.
Secondly, Rabanus thinks that Sephora said this in anger, as if to say: Thou, O husband, art the cause why I have had to shed the blood of my son; whence I justly am indignant, and call thee a spouse of blood.
Thirdly, others explain it as if she said: I see that thou wilt be to me a laborious and bloody spouse, and that far greater things are to be endured by me with thee in Egypt: send me away, therefore, that I may return home to my parents; whence they think that Sephora here returned home with her sons.
Fourthly, and best, as if she said: Had I not shed the blood of my son in the circumcision, thou wouldst have perished by the slaying angel; thee therefore I have again acquired and bought for myself as spouse, not with a money dowry, but with the pouring out of the blood of my son, as I shall explain more fully in the next verse.
Note: Marriages, among the Hebrews as among the Romans, were made by purchase: the husband, by money given both to the wife and to her parents, bought her from them for himself as wife; and in turn the wife sometimes bought the husband for herself by a price paid. So David bought from Saul his daughter Michol for himself as wife with the foreskins of the Philistines, 2 Kings iii, 14. So Osee bought for himself a fornicating woman as wife for fifteen pieces of silver, Osee iii, 2. So of old the Saxons and Burgundians bought wives for themselves from their parents for three hundred solidi. Hence also that saying of the Poet:
And Thetis would buy thee for herself as son-in-law with all her waves. The law denies thee marriage, and dowries sought with blood.
See Ribera on Osee iii.
26. AND HE LET HIM GO.—Namely Sephora left Moses and returned to her country, says Lyranus. But the Hebrew yireph is against this, which does not signify to send back to another place, but to rest, cease, let go in peace, not to vex another.
Thirdly, others say: “he let him go,” namely the disease with which the angel had struck Moses.
Fourthly, and genuinely: “he let him go,” namely the angel let Moses go, and no longer threatened him with death when he saw that his son was now circumcised; whence the Septuagint render, and the angel departed from him. So S. Augustine.
A BLOODY SPOUSE ART THOU TO ME BECAUSE OF THE CIRCUMCISION.—Some explain thus: Thou, O husband or spouse, wast guilty of blood and death, and wast to be slain because of the omitted circumcision of thy son. But I say truly: the sense is, because of the circumcision, that is, because of the blood of my son, which I shed in his circumcision; thou, O Moses, art to me a spouse of blood: because by this blood I have redeemed thee, doomed to death, from death; as if she said: Before my son was circumcised, thou wast to me a spouse of blood, of slaughter and killing, says R. David Kimchi, because thou wast to be slain, and thy blood was to be shed by the angel: but now, the son being circumcised, thou art to me a spouse of the blood of circumcision, because with the blood of the circumcision of my son I have bought thy life, and thee as my spouse.
Symbolically, Moses joined to a foreigner is the Christian Doctor devoted to human philosophy. She brings forth offspring, that is, true doctrines, but mixed with vain and false ones; which, unless they are circumcised, bring death to the Christian man: for example, the doctrines of the Philosophers are that God is the first mover, but is not omnipotent; that He cannot make anything out of nothing, but only out of matter co-eternal with Himself; that He does not act freely, but by fate and from the necessity of nature. All these must be circumcised with the stone knife, that is, by the faith of Christ.
Again, learn here that it is not enough for the father of a family to be himself religious and holy, but he ought to take care that his sons and the whole household be such. Hear how rightly and piously S. Elzear, count of Ariano, ordered his household, from his Life, ch. xvii: “First, he ordained that all in his house should hear Mass entire every day. Secondly, that they should live chastely and purely: those who did otherwise he expelled from his house. For he would not have anyone eat his bread whom he knew to be entangled in mortal sin, lest he should infect others, and lest he should seem to foster his sin. Thirdly, that the nobles and soldiers, and likewise the virgins and matrons, should confess once a week and communicate once a month. Fourthly, that the same virgins and matrons should spend the morning until dinner in prayers and pious exercises, and after dinner occupy themselves with manual works. Fifthly, that no one should dare to blaspheme God, the Blessed Virgin or any of the Saints, or swear rashly, or utter anything unbecoming; for evil communications corrupt good manners: he who did otherwise he compelled to fast on bread and water. Sixthly, that no one should play at dice or any other base and dishonourable game. Seventhly, that all should cultivate peace, friendship and concord: if anyone had offended another, he should at once return into favour with the offended. Eighthly, that every day after dinner or in the evening, in his presence, there should be among them conference and conversation on pious and salutary matters.” Read also Tobias, ch. iv, where he instructs his son to every virtue. In this age also Blessed Thomas More, Chancellor of England and martyr, so instructed his children and household both in letters and in Christian virtue and piety, that Erasmus writes of it: “The house of More is a school and gymnasium of Christian religion.” Dr. Stapleton is witness to this in his Life of More.
Allegorically, the true Christian, especially the Religious, may say this to Christ: “A bloody spouse art thou to me, O Christ,” both because with Thy blood Thou hast bought and espoused my soul to Thyself. Whence S. Agnes said to the tyrant: “The blood of Christ my spouse hath stained my cheeks;” and because in turn, that I may be a spouse worthy of Thee, Thou demandest my blood, yea my flesh and my life, while Thou teachest those who wish to follow Thee and to please Thee that the lusts of flesh and blood must be circumcised and mortified, when Thou sayest: No man can be my disciple, unless he deny himself, and take up his cross, unless he hate and lose his life in this world, unless he crucify his flesh with its vices and concupiscences; unless he resist the devil, the flesh and the world even unto blood, even unto death and martyrdom: and this is “the circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter,” not Jewish, but Christian, not outward, but inward, “whose praise is not of men, but of God,” Romans ii, 29. To the martyr, therefore, Christ is a spouse of blood. Whence S. Cyprian, De Laude Martyrii: “To our blood,” he says, “heaven lies open; the soldier enters rejoicing in his wounds.” The same, bk. ii, ep. 4: “You,” he says, “fat clusters of the Lord’s vineyard, and bunches now with ripened fruit, trodden by the assault of the persecution of the world, feel our winepress: in place of wine you pour out blood; strong to endure suffering, you gladly drink the cup of martyrdom.”
Finally, it was not enough for Moses to circumcise his elder son, unless he also circumcised the second: so for a Prelate, and for any Christian, it is not enough to circumcise the understanding from error, unless he also circumcise the affection from covetousness. So Pererius.
27. TO THE MOUNT OF GOD,—to mount Sina. It seems that Moses, now accompanied by his brother Aaron, fully girding himself to undertake his so arduous legation, had sent his wife with his sons back to Madian, that he might be freer and more unencumbered: for that Sephora departed from Moses to her own people is plain from this, that she afterwards returned to Moses in Sina, with his sons, he having come out of Egypt with the Hebrews, as is said in ch. xviii, 2.
30. AND AARON SPOKE.—Behold, Aaron here is the mouth and interpreter of Moses, as God had foretold, verse 16.
AND HE DID THE SIGNS BEFORE THE PEOPLE.—“He did,” not Aaron, but Moses who immediately preceded: for the offices of Moses and Aaron had been so apportioned by God that Moses by his authority commanded and did the signs, and Aaron uttered the commands of Moses and of God, as leader of the word.
SIGNS,—those three, of which at the beginning of the chapter.
31. HE HAD VISITED,—had looked upon them to deliver them and lead them out of Egypt; for this latter word is the explanation of the former.