Exodus 4:1–9

If They Will Not Believe These Signs

¹Then Moses answered and said, “What if they will not believe me and will not ^alisten to my voice? For they may say, ‘^bYahweh has not appeared to you.’”

²And Yahweh said to him, “What is this in your hand?” And he said, “^aA staff.”

³Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and ^ait became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.

⁴And Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—so he stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his ¹hand—

⁵“that ^athey may believe that ^bYahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁶And Yahweh furthermore said to him, “Now put your hand into your bosom.” So he put his hand into his bosom; then he took it out, and behold, his hand was ^aleprous like snow.

⁷Then He said, “Return your hand into your bosom.” So he returned his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, ^ait returned to being like the rest of his flesh.

⁸“And so it will be, if they will not believe you or listen to the ¹witness of the first sign, they may believe the ²witness of ³this last sign.

⁹“But if it will be that they will not believe even these two signs and that they will not listen to your voice, then you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land; and the water which you take from the Nile ^awill become blood on the dry land.”