In the Book of Exodus the wife of Moses is Zipporah, daughter of the priest of Midian. In the Book of Numbers we read this: Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on the pretext of the marriage he had contracted with a Cushite woman. The Cush were an African people, not Semites like the Midianites. Did Zipporah die? Was this a polygamous union? The Bible is unclear. Was the critique racist? — that Moses dared to marry outside of the traditional tribal boundaries? Again, we don’t know. What the text does demonstrate is how easy it is to judge on the basis of some external factor — race, language, religion. We need to have the eyes of God and see every person as precious, of infinite worth.
