Exodus 4–12

Miraculous Signs for Moses to Do

4Moses answered, “What if the elders of Israel won’t believe me? What if they won’t listen to me? Suppose they say, ‘The Lord didn’t appear to you.’ Then what should I do?”

²The Lord said to him, “What do you have in your hand?”

“A wooden staff,” he said.

³The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”

So Moses threw it on the ground. It turned into a snake. He ran away from it. ⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach your hand out. Take the snake by the tail.” So he reached out and grabbed hold of the snake. It turned back into a staff in his hand.

⁵The Lord said, “When they see this miraculous sign, they will believe that I appeared to you. I am the God of their fathers. I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. And I am the God of Jacob.”

⁶Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your coat.” So Moses put his hand inside his coat. When he took it out, it was as white as snow. It was covered with a skin disease.

⁷“Now put it back into your coat,” the Lord said. So Moses put his hand back into his coat. When he took it out, the skin was healthy again. His hand was like the rest of his skin.

⁸Then the Lord said, “Suppose they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miracle. Then maybe they will believe the second one.

⁹“But suppose they do not believe either miracle. Suppose they will not listen to you. Then get some water from the Nile River. Pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will turn to blood on the ground.”

¹⁰Moses spoke to the Lord. He said, “Lord, I’ve never been a good speaker. And I haven’t gotten any better since you spoke to me. I don’t speak very well at all.”

¹¹The Lord said to him, “Who makes a man able to talk? Who makes him unable to hear or speak? Who makes him able to see? Who makes him blind? It is I, the Lord. ¹²Now go. I will help you speak. I will teach you what to say.”

¹³But Moses said, “Lord, please send someone else to do it.”

¹⁴Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses. He said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you. He will be glad to see you. ¹⁵Speak to him. Put your words in his mouth. Tell him what to say. I will help both of you speak. I will teach you what to do. ¹⁶He will speak to the people for you. He will be like your mouth. And you will be like God to him.

¹⁷“But take this wooden staff in your hand. You will be able to do miraculous signs with it.”

Moses Returns to Egypt

¹⁸Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro. He said to him, “Let me go back to my own people in Egypt. I want to see if any of them are still alive.”

Jethro said, “Go. I hope everything goes well with you.”

¹⁹The Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt. All of the men who wanted to kill you are dead.”

²⁰So Moses got his wife and sons. He put them on a donkey. Together they started back to Egypt. And he took the wooden staff in his hand. It was the staff God would use in a powerful way.

²¹The Lord spoke to Moses. He said, “When you return to Egypt, do all of the miracles I have given you the power to do. Do them in the sight of Pharaoh. But I will make his heart stubborn. He will not let the people go.

²²“Then say to Pharaoh, ‘The Lord says, “Israel is like an oldest son to me. ²³I told you, ‘Let my son go. Then he will be able to worship me.’ But you refused to let him go. So I will kill your oldest son.” ’ ”

²⁴On the way to Egypt, Moses stopped for the night. There the Lord met him and was about to kill him.

²⁵But Zipporah got a knife that was made out of hard stone. She circumcised her son with it. Then she touched Moses’ feet with the skin she had cut off. “You are a husband who has forced me to spill my son’s blood,” she said. ²⁶So the Lord didn’t kill Moses. When she said “husband who has forced me to spill my son’s blood,” she was talking about circumcision.

²⁷The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the desert to see Moses.” So he greeted Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.

²⁸Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say. He also told him about all of the miraculous signs he had commanded him to do.

²⁹Moses and Aaron gathered all of the elders of Israel together. ³⁰Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also did the miracles in the sight of the people.

³¹And they believed. They heard that the Lord was concerned about them. He had seen their suffering. So they bowed down and worshiped him.

Pharaoh Makes the Israelites Work Even Harder

5Later on, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh. They said, “The Lord is the God of Israel. He says, ‘Let my people go. Then they will be able to hold a feast in my honor in the desert.’ ”

²Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord? Why should I obey him? Why should I let Israel go? I don’t even know the Lord. And I won’t let Israel go.”

³Then Moses and Aaron said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a journey that lasts about three days. We want to go into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don’t, he might strike us with plagues. Or he might let us be killed with swords.”

⁴But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their work? Get back to work!” ⁵Pharaoh continued, “There are large numbers of your people in the land. But you are stopping them from working.”

⁶That same day Pharaoh gave orders to the slave drivers and the others who were in charge of the people. ⁷He said, “Don’t give the people any more straw to make bricks. Let them go and get their own straw. ⁸But require them to make the same number of bricks as before. Don’t lower the number they have to make. They don’t want to work. That’s why they are crying out, ‘Let us go. We want to offer sacrifices to our God.’ ⁹Make them work harder. Then they will be too busy to pay attention to lies.”

¹⁰The slave drivers and the others who were in charge left. They said to the people, “Pharaoh says, ‘I won’t give you any more straw. ¹¹Go and get your own straw anywhere you can find it. But you still have to make the same number of bricks.’ ”

¹²So the people scattered all over Egypt. They went to gather any pieces of straw that were left in the fields.

¹³The slave drivers kept making the people work hard. They said, “Finish the work you are required to do each day. Make the same number of bricks you made when you had straw.” ¹⁴They whipped the Israelites who were in charge of the people. Those Israelites had been appointed by Pharaoh’s slave drivers. The slave drivers asked, “Why didn’t you make the same number of bricks yesterday or today, just as before?”

¹⁵Then the Israelites who were in charge of the people made their appeal to Pharaoh. They asked, “Why have you treated us like this? ¹⁶You didn’t give us any straw. But you told us, ‘Make bricks!’ We are being whipped. But it’s the fault of your own people.”

¹⁷Pharaoh said, “You just don’t want to work! That’s why you keep saying, ‘Let us go. We want to offer sacrifices to the Lord.’ ¹⁸Now get to work. We won’t give you any straw. But you still have to make the same number of bricks.”

¹⁹The Israelites who were in charge of the people realized they were in trouble. They knew it when they were told, “Don’t lower the number of bricks you are required to make each day.”

²⁰When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them. ²¹They said to Moses and Aaron, “We want the Lord to look at what you have done! We want him to judge you for it! We are like a very bad smell to Pharaoh and his officials. You have given them an excuse to kill us with their swords.”

The Lord Promises to Save the Israelites

²²Moses returned to the Lord. He said to him, “Lord, why have you brought trouble on these people? Is this why you sent me? ²³I went to Pharaoh to speak to him in your name. Ever since then, he has brought nothing but trouble on these people. And you haven’t saved your people at all.”

6Then the Lord spoke to Moses. He said, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. Because of my powerful hand, he will let the people of Israel go. Because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of his country.”

²God continued, “I am the Lord. ³I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the Mighty God. But I did not show them the full meaning of my name, The Lord.

⁴“I also made my covenant with them. I promised to give them the land of Canaan. That is where they lived as outsiders. ⁵Also, I have heard the groans of the Israelites. The Egyptians are keeping them as slaves. But I have remembered my covenant.

⁶“So tell the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord. I will throw off the heavy load the Egyptians have put on your shoulders. I will set you free from being slaves to them. I will reach out my arm and save you with mighty acts when I judge Egypt.

⁷“ ‘I will take you to be my own people. I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God when I throw off the load the Egyptians have put on your shoulders.

⁸“ ‘I will bring you to the land I promised with an oath to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I lifted up my hand and promised it to them. The land will belong to you. I am the Lord.’ ”

⁹Moses reported those things to the Israelites. But they didn’t listen to him. That’s because they had lost all hope and had to work very hard.

¹⁰Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹¹“Go. Tell Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel leave his country.”

¹²But Moses spoke to the Lord. “The people won’t listen to me,” he said. “So why would Pharaoh listen to me? After all, I don’t speak very well.”

The Family Line of Moses and Aaron

¹³The Lord had spoken to Moses and Aaron. He had talked with them about the Israelites and about Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. He had commanded Moses and Aaron to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt.

¹⁴Here were the leaders of the family groups of Reuben, Simeon and Levi.

Reuben was the oldest son of Israel. His sons were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. Those were the family groups of Reuben.

¹⁵…