Exodus 4:1-31
4 And Moses answered “And suppose they do not believe me nor obey me, because they say ‘Jehovah has not appeared to you’?”
2 And Jehovah said to him “What’s that in your hand?” and he said “A stick.”
3 And he said “Throw it on the ground!” and he did, and it turned to a snake, and Moses ran away from it.
4 And Jehovah said to Moses “Put out your hand and take it by the tail!” and he put out his hand and grasped it, and it turned to a stick in his hand.
5 “In order that they may believe that Jehovah, their fathers’ God, Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God, Jacob’s God, has appeared to you.”
6 And again Jehovah said to him “Put your hand into your bosom!” and he did, and drew it out and found his hand snowy with leprosy.
7 * And he said “Put your hand back in your bosom!” and he did, and drew it out of his bosom and found it had turned back to be like the rest of his flesh.
8 “And if they do not believe you nor listen to the first token, they will believe the second;
9 and if they do not believe both the tokens nor listen to you, take Nile water and pour it out on the dry ground and the water you took from the Nile shall become blood on the dry ground.”
10 And Moses said to Jehovah “O Lord, I am no talker, I never was one and I am not since you have spoken to your servant, but I have a clumsy mouth and tongue.”
11 * And Jehovah said to him “Who put a mouth in man? or who renders one dumb or deaf, or clear-sighted or blind? am I not Jehovah?
12 Now go, and I will be with your mouth and instruct you what to say.”
13 But Moses said “O Lord, send by somebody or other.”
14 And Jehovah was angry at Moses, and said “Aaron the Levite is your brother, is he not? I know he does talk; and he is coming right out to meet you, too, and will be joyful.
15 And you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his, and instruct you both what to do;
16 and he shall speak to the people for you; and you shall have him for mouth and he shall have you for God.
17 And you are to take in your hand this stick, with which you are to do the tokens.”
18 And Moses went his way, and went back to his father-in-law Ithro and said to him “Let me go and revisit my brothers in Egypt and see if they are still alive”; and Ithro said to Moses “Go, and good betide you.”
19 And Jehovah said to Moses in Midian “Go, return to Egypt, because all the men who were looking for your life are dead”;
20 * and Moses took his wife and sons on a donkey and went back to Egypt; and Moses took along God’s stick in his hand.
21 And Jehovah said to Moses as he took his way back to Egypt “See, all the miracles I have put into your power you shall do before the Pharaoh; but I will make him headstrong, and he will not let the people go.
22 And you shall say to the Pharaoh ‘See, Israel is my son, my eldest-born;
23 and I said to you “Let my son go to worship me,” and you refused to let him go: I am going to kill your son, your eldest-born.’”
24 And on the road, at a halting-place for the night, he met with Jehovah, who tried to kill him.
25 And Sipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched it to his legs and said “Because you are blood-bridegroom of mine”;
26 and he let him alone. She then said “blood-bridegroom” of circumcisions.
27 And Jehovah said to Aaron “Go to the wilderness to meet Moses”; and he went, and met with him at the Mount of God, and kissed him.
28 And Moses told Aaron all Jehovah’s message that he had sent him with, and all the tokens he had charged him with.
29 And Moses and Aaron went and brought together all the elders of the sons of Israel;
30 and Aaron recited all the words that Jehovah had spoken to Moses and did the tokens before the people;
31 * and the people believed, and rejoiced that Jehovah had taken up the case of the sons of Israel and had seen their wretched condition. And they bowed down and did reverence.
Footnotes
^ 4:7 Lit. turned back like the rest of
^ 4:11 Or is it not I, Jehovah?
^ 4:20 Conj. son
^ 4:31 Var. believed. And they heard that Jehovah
