Do you ever have a verse or two stop you and you have to ask yourself, "What did I just read?" The three verses above did that to me. Below are the results of a quick search to find out what was the reason the Lord sought to kill Moses and if He sought to kill him, what stopped Him; what is meant by "a bloody husband;" and why did Zipporah "cast [her sons' foreskin] at [Moses'] feet"?
If this doesn't fully answer the questions for you or it only raises more questions, at least you have a launching pad for further study.
"As Moses and his family journeyed toward Egypt, something went wrong, but the words used here do not tell what it was. Surely if the Lord 'sought to kill' a man He would not fail to do so. The inspired revision provides a better understanding of the matter. The phrase 'bloody husband' is used later to translate a similar idiom that designated a recipient of the covenant of circumcision. Doubtless Moses, as a previous recipient, should have performed the rite on his son; Joseph Smith's inspired translation indicates that Moses was ashamed that he had not done so (Ex. 4:24a-c, 25b). After the operation, Zipporah returned with the children to the home of her father, Jethro, until Moses' rescue mission was over and the Israelites were encamped at Sinai (Ex. 18:1-6). " (Ellis T. Rasmussen, A Latter-day Saint Commentary on the Old Testament, p.91)
"[Gershom] The elder of the two sons of Moses born to him in Midian (Ex. 2:22; 18:3). On his way to Egypt with his family, in obedience to the command of the Lord, Moses was attacked by a sudden and dangerous illness (4:24-26), which Zipporah his wife believed to have been sent because he had neglected to circumcise his son. She accordingly took a 'sharp stone' and circumcised her son Gershom, saying, 'Surely a bloody husband art thou to me', i.e., by the blood of her child she had, as it were, purchased her husband, had won him back again." (M. Easton, Easton's Bible Dictionary, Gershom)
"Zipporah was the oldest of Jethro's daughters. Her marriage to Moses took place shortly after the incident at the well. Missing is the romantic wooing that accompanied Isaac and Jacob's taking of their wives. The rest of Zipporah's story seems to bear out the fact that she was not the great soul-mate and companion that Sarah, Rebekah, or Rachel were to their husbands. She bore Moses two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, but she seems not to have had a sense of his mission.
"Forty years later, Moses started the journey back to Egypt. With his wife, his sons, an ass, and a walking stick, he headed out across the desert, a humble man traveling toward his destiny. The narrative is obscure and apparently incomplete, but Moses seems to have been troubled because his wife, a Midianite, had refused to allow the circumcision of their sons-or at least of their younger son. Now Moses, called by God to the leadership of his people, was anguished because he had neglected this sacred duty. They halted at an inn for the night and Moses became seriously ill.
"Both he and Zipporah saw the illness as a sign of divine displeasure and became conscience-stricken over the fact that they had profaned God's covenant. Zipporah yielded. Moses was too weak to hold a knife, so she seized a piece of flint and circumcised her son. Taking the severed foreskin and throwing it down before Moses, she cried, 'Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.'
"When Moses regained his health, he went on to Egypt, but he may have sent Zipporah and his sons back to his father-in-law, for she is next mentioned in an incident in the desert, after the Exodus, when Jethro came out to see Moses, bringing his wife and sons to him. Moses received them graciously, and Jethro gave his overburdened son-in-law some much-needed advice. Nothing more is said of Zipporah. A strong woman of some temper, her legacy to her sons and her husband does not seem to have been a spiritual one, though her sons and grandsons became great leaders." (Jerrie W. Hurd, Our Sisters in the Bible, pp.38-9)
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