Exodus 4:1-31
Moses Given Powerful Signs
Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice,for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’” 2 The LORD said to him, “What isthat in your hand?” He said, i“A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So hethrew it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the LORD saidto Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it,and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may jbelieve that the LORD, kthe God oftheir fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared toyou.” 6 Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.”1 And he put hishand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was lleprous2 like snow.7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back insidehis cloak, and when he took it out, behold, mit was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 “Ifthey will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the lattersign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall takesome water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall takefrom the Nile nwill become blood on the dry ground.”
10 But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past orsince you have spoken to your servant, but oI am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then theLORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing,or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now therefore go, and pI will be with your mouth andteach you what you shall speak.” 13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”14 Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron,your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, qhe is coming out to meetyou, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 rYou shall speak to him and sputthe words in his mouth, and pI will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teachyou both what to do. 16 tHe shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth,and uyou shall be as God to him. 17 And take in your hand vthis staff, with which you shalldo the signs.”
Moses Returns to Egypt
18 Moses went back to wJethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go backto my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Goin peace.” 19 And the LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for xall the menwho were seeking your life are dead.” 20 So Moses took yhis wife and his sons and hadthem ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took zthe staff ofGod in his hand.
21 And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do beforePharaoh all the amiracles that I have put in your power. But bI will harden his heart, sothat he will not let the people go. 22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD,cIsrael is my dfirstborn son, 23 and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” Ifyou refuse to let him go, behold, I ewill kill your firstborn son.’”
24 At a lodging place on the way fthe LORD met him and gsought to put him to death.25 Then hZipporah took a iflint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’3 feetwith it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. Itwas then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
27 The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness jto meet Moses.” So he went andmet him at the kmountain of God and kissed him. 28 And Moses ltold Aaron all the wordsof the LORD with which he had sent him to speak, and all mthe signs that he hadcommanded him to do. 29 Then Moses and Aaron nwent and gathered together all theelders of the people of Israel. 30 oAaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken toMoses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 And the people pbelieved; and whenthey heard that the LORD had qvisited the people of Israel and that he had rseen theiraffliction, sthey bowed their heads and worshiped.