God tries to kill Moses

Sometimes He was a capricious sort

THE BOOK OF EXODUS

The Book of Exodus also contains a baffling turn of events. At one point, God gives Moses instructions on what he must do to help free the Israelites from Egypt's pharaoh. God gives Moses special capabilities, such as the ability to turn his staff into a snake. However, as Moses heads toward Egypt, God gets another idea: "At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah [the wife of Moses] took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. 'Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,' she said. So the Lord let him alone."

Scholars differ in their explanations as to why God initially planned to kill Moses. One possibility is that some passages from this biblical story that may have answered that question were lost.