Exodus 4

Moses answered, “But they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’” The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” He said, “Throw it on the ground.” He threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. The LORD said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” He reached out his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his palm. “This is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” The LORD said to him again, “Put your hand inside your robe.” He put his hand inside his robe, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, white as snow. He said, “Put your hand back inside your robe.” He put his hand back inside his robe, and when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they do not believe you or listen to the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the latter sign. If they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, take water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” Moses said to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” The LORD said to him, “Who has given man a mouth? Who makes one mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” But he said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.” Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. He is even now coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will rejoice in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and teach you what you shall do. He shall speak for you to the people. He shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. Take this staff in your hand, with which you shall perform the signs.” Moses went back to his father-in-law Jether and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt and see whether they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” The LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are dead.” Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took the staff of God in his hand. The LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go. You shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Israel is my son, my firstborn. I told you to let my son go so that he might serve me, but you refused to let him go. I will kill your son, your firstborn.”’” On the way, at the lodging place, the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched his feet with it. She said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” So he left him alone. Then she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision. The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” He went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs he had commanded him. Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the Israelites. Aaron spoke all the words the LORD had spoken to Moses, and he performed the signs before the people’s eyes. The people believed. When they heard that the LORD had visited the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

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