Zipporah is one of the daughters of the priest of Midian who met Moses at the well. Moses later took her as his wife, and she bore him a son. She is identified in the narrative of Moses settling in Midian (Exodus 2:16-22).
In Exodus 2:16–17, the scene shifts to Midian, where a local priest’s seven daughters arrive at a well to draw water for their father’s animals. Their normal work is interrupted when other shepherds force them away. Moses intervenes by standing up to the shepherds, helping the women, and ensuring the animals are watered. These verses come right after Moses flees Egypt because of conflict with Egyptian power and rejection among his own people (the immediate lead-in in Exodus 2:15).
These verses present a small, concrete scene that reveals character through action. A Midianite priest’s seven daughters do ordinary work at a well: drawing water and filling troughs so their father’s flock can drink. Other shepherds then drive them away, and Moses intervenes—he stands up for them, helps them, and ensures the flock is watered.
A common mistake is to treat this as trivia. Names, places, numbers, and sequence details often carry memory, covenant identity, or narrative movement in the biblical story.
Start with Exodus 2:16-22, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
16Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father`s flock.
17The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, "How is it that you have returned so early today?"
19They said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock."
20He said to his daughters, "Where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread."
21Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter.
22She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land."