Exodus - Chapter 4

¹ Moses replied as follows, 'But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my words, and say to me, "Yahweh has not appeared to you"?'

² Yahweh then said, 'What is that in your hand?' 'A staff,' he said.

³ 'Throw it on the ground,' said Yahweh. Moses threw it on the ground; the staff turned into a snake and Moses recoiled from it.

⁴ Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Reach out your hand and catch it by the tail.' He reached out his hand, caught it, and in his hand it turned back into a staff.

⁵ 'Thus they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.'

⁶ Next, Yahweh said to him, 'Put your hand inside your tunic.' He put his hand inside his tunic, then drew it out again: and his hand was diseased, white as snow.

⁷ Yahweh then said, 'Put your hand back inside your tunic.' He put his hand back inside his tunic and when he drew it out, there it was restored, just like the rest of his flesh.

⁸ 'Even so: should they not believe you nor be convinced by the first sign, the second sign will convince them;

⁹ but should they not be convinced by either of these two signs and refuse to listen to what you say, you are to take some water from the River and pour it on the ground, and the water you have taken from the River will turn to blood on the dry land.'

¹⁰ Moses said to Yahweh, 'Please, my Lord, I have never been eloquent, even since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow and hesitant of speech.'

¹¹ 'Who gave a person a mouth?' Yahweh said to him. 'Who makes a person dumb or deaf, gives sight or makes blind? Is it not I, Yahweh?

¹² Now go, I shall help you speak and instruct you what to say.'

¹³ 'Please, my Lord,' Moses replied, 'send anyone you decide to send!'

¹⁴ At this, Yahweh's anger kindled against Moses, and he said to him, 'There is your brother Aaron the Levite, is there not? I know that he is a good speaker. Here he comes to meet you. When he sees you, his heart will be full of joy.

¹⁵ You will speak to him and tell him what message to give. I shall help you speak, and him too, and instruct you what to do.

¹⁶ He will speak to the people in your place; he will be your mouthpiece, and you will be as the god inspiring him.

¹⁷ And take this staff in your hand; with this you will perform the signs.'

¹⁸ Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, 'Give me leave to return to my kinsmen in Egypt and see if they are still alive.' And Jethro said to Moses, 'Go in peace.'

¹⁹ Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, 'Go, return to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.'

²⁰ So Moses took his wife and his son and, putting them on a donkey, started back for Egypt; and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

²¹ Yahweh said to Moses, 'Think of the wonders I have given you power to perform, once you are back in Egypt! You are to perform them before Pharaoh, but I myself shall make him obstinate, and he will not let the people go.

²² You will then say to Pharaoh, "This is what Yahweh says: Israel is my first-born son.

²³ I told you: Let my son go and worship me; but since you refuse to let him go, well then! I shall put your first-born son to death." '

²⁴ On the journey, when he had halted for the night, Yahweh encountered him and tried to kill him.

²⁵ Then Zipporah, taking up a flint, cut off her son's foreskin and with it touched his feet and said, 'You are my blood-bridegroom!'

²⁶ So he let him go. She said, 'Blood-bridegroom' then, with reference to the circumcision.

²⁷ Yahweh said to Aaron, 'Go into the desert to meet Moses.' So he went, and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

²⁸ Moses then told Aaron all that Yahweh had said when sending him and all the signs he had ordered him to perform.

²⁹ Moses and Aaron then went and gathered all the elders of the Israelites together,

³⁰ and Aaron repeated everything that Yahweh had said to Moses, and in the sight of the people performed the signs.

³¹ The people were convinced, and they rejoiced that Yahweh had visited the Israelites and seen their misery, and they bowed to the ground in worship.

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