Moses Swallowed By A Serpent

"And it came to pass on the way, at the lodging place" (Exodus 4:24). Beloved is circumcision, for Moses did not delay over it even one hour. Therefore, when he was on the way and busied himself at the lodging place and was slothful about circumcising Eliezer his son, immediately "the LORD met him and sought to kill him" (Exodus 4:24). You find that it was an angel of mercy, and even so "he sought to kill him." "And Zipporah took a flint" (Exodus 4:25). Now from where did Zipporah know that it was over the matter of circumcision that Moses was endangered? Rather, the angel came and swallowed Moses from his head down to the circumcision. When Zipporah saw that it had swallowed him only as far as the circumcision, she recognized that it was over the matter of circumcision that he was harmed, and she knew how great is the power of circumcision, that the angel could not swallow him beyond that point. Immediately "she cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to his feet, and said: Surely a bridegroom of blood are you to me" (Exodus 4:25). She said: You shall be my bridegroom, given to me by the merit of this blood of circumcision, for behold, I have fulfilled the commandment. Immediately "the angel let him go" (Exodus 4:26). "Then she said: A bridegroom of blood, with regard to the circumcision" (Exodus 4:26). She said: How great is the power of circumcision, for my bridegroom was liable to death because he was slothful in performing the commandment of circumcision, and had it not been for it, he would not have been saved.