Exodus
Chapter 4
1 Moses answered, “But look, they won’t believe me or listen to my voice; they’ll say, ‘God hasn’t appeared to you.’”
2 God asked him, “What do you have in your hand?” He replied, “A staff.”
3 He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it turned into a snake; then Moses ran away from it.
4 God said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and grab its tail.” So Moses reached out, caught it, and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
5 So they may believe that the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has shown Himself to you.
6 God also said to him, “Now put your hand inside your shirt.” He put his hand inside his shirt, and when he took it out, it was as white with leprosy as snow.
7 He said, “Put your hand inside your shirt again.” So he put his hand back inside his shirt, and when he took it out, it was normal like the rest of his skin.
8 If people don’t believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they will believe the second sign.
9 If people don’t believe these two signs or listen to you, take some river water and pour it on dry ground. Then, the water from the river will turn into blood on the ground.
10 Moses said to God, “Oh my God, I am not good at speaking, and I haven’t been good at speaking even since you started talking to me. I speak slowly and with difficulty.”
11 God asked him, “Who gave humans their mouths? Who makes them unable to talk or hear, see or blind? Isn’t it me, God?”
12 Go now, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what to say.
13 He said, “Oh my God, please send someone else to do it.”
14 God was angry with Moses and said, “Isn’t Aaron the Levite your brother? I know he speaks well. Look, he is coming to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be happy.”
15 You will talk to him, put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and teach you what to do.
16 He will speak to the people for you, and he will be like your mouth, while you will be like God to him.
17 You will take this staff in your hand to perform miracles.
18 Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see if they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19 God told Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.”
20 Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and went back to Egypt, carrying God’s staff.
21 God told Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, make sure you do all the miracles in front of Pharaoh that I have given you the power to do. But I will make his heart stubborn so he won’t let the people go.”
22 Tell Pharaoh, God says, ‘Israel is my child, my firstborn.’
23 I tell you, let my son go so he can serve me; but if you don’t let him go, I will kill your firstborn son.
24 On the journey, at the overnight place, God met him and wanted to kill him.
25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, cut off her son’s foreskin, threw it at his feet, and said, “You are really a husband of blood to me.”
26 So he released him. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood because of the circumcision.”
27 God told Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and found Moses on God’s mountain and kissed him.
28 Moses told Aaron everything God had said to him and all the miracles God told him to perform.
29 Moses and Aaron went and brought together all the elders of the Israelites.
30 Aaron said everything God told Moses and did the miracles for the people to see.
31 The people believed when they heard that God had come to help the people of Israel and seen their suffering, so they bowed down and worshiped.