Exodus 4–5

Miraculous Signs for Pharaoh

4Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ”

²So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

He said, “A rod.”

³And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. ⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), ⁵“that they may ^abelieve that the ^bLord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁶Furthermore the Lord said to him, “Now put your hand in your bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, ^clike snow. ⁷And He said, “Put your hand in your bosom again.” So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, ^dit was restored like his other flesh. ⁸“Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the ^efirst sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. ⁹And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from ¹the river and pour it on the dry land. ^fThe water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land.”

¹⁰Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but ^gI am slow of speech and ²slow of tongue.”

¹¹So the Lord said to him, ^h“Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? ¹²Now therefore, go, and I will be ⁱwith your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

¹³But he said, “O my Lord, ^jplease send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”

¹⁴So ^kthe anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your ^lbrother? I know that he can speak well. And look, ^mhe is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. ¹⁵Now ⁿyou shall speak to him and ^oput the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and ^pI will teach you what you shall do. ¹⁶So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and ^qyou shall be to him as God. ¹⁷And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”

Moses Goes to Egypt

¹⁸So Moses went and returned to ^rJethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.”

And Jethro said to Moses, ^s“Go in peace.”

¹⁹Now the Lord said to Moses in ^tMidian, “Go, return to ^uEgypt; for ^vall the men who sought your life are dead.” ²⁰Then Moses ^wtook his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took ^xthe rod of God in his hand.

²¹And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those ^ywonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But ^zI will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. ²²Then you shall ^asay to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^b“Israel is My son, ^cMy firstborn. ²³So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed ^dI will kill your son, your firstborn.” ’ ”

²⁴And it came to pass on the way, at the ^eencampment, that the Lord ^fmet him and sought to ^gkill him. ²⁵Then ^hZipporah took ⁱa sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and ³cast it at ⁴Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!” ²⁶So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a ⁵husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision.

²⁷And the Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness ^jto meet Moses.” So he went and met him on ^kthe mountain of God, and kissed him. ²⁸So Moses ^ltold Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the ^msigns which He had commanded him. ²⁹Then Moses and Aaron ⁿwent and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. ^30oAnd Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people. ³¹So the people ^pbelieved; and when they heard that the Lord had ^qvisited the children of Israel and that He ^rhad looked on their affliction, then ^sthey bowed their heads and worshiped.

First Encounter with Pharaoh

5Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may ¹hold ^aa feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ”

²And Pharaoh said, ^b“Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, ^cnor will I let Israel go.”

³So they said, ^d“The God of the Hebrews has ^emet with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with ^fpestilence or with the sword.”

⁴Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your ^glabor.” ⁵And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are ^hmany now, and you make them rest from their labor!”

⁶So the same day Pharaoh commanded the ⁱtaskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, ⁷“You shall no longer give the people straw to make ^jbrick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words.”

¹⁰And the taskmasters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I will not give you straw. ¹¹Go, get yourselves straw where you can find it; yet none of your work will be reduced.’ ” ¹²So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. ¹³And the taskmasters forced them to hurry, saying, “Fulfill your work, your daily quota, as when there was straw.” ¹⁴Also the ^kofficers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were ^lbeaten and were asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as before?”

¹⁵Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why are you dealing thus with your servants? ¹⁶There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, ‘Make brick!’ And indeed your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people.”

¹⁷But he said, “You are idle! Idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ ¹⁸Therefore go now and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the quota of bricks.” ¹⁹And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble after it was said, “You shall not reduce any bricks from your daily quota.”

²⁰Then, as they came out from Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them. ^21mAnd they said to them, “Let the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made ²us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

Israel’s Deliverance Assured

²²So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? ²³For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.”