Exodus 4

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.