Exodus 4

Moses replied to God, “They will completely disbelieve me and ignore me because they will think, ‘God did not appear to you.’”

God said to him, “What is that in your hand?” Moses answered, “A staff.”

God said, “Throw it down on the ground!” So Moses threw the staff on the ground. It became a snake and Moses ran away from it. \*

Then God said to Moses, “Pick up the snake by its tail.” So Moses picked up the snake by the tail, and it became a staff in his hand again.

{God said,} “{Do the same thing in front of the Israelite elders} in order that they may believe that I, God, the God that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and your other ancestors worshiped, truly appeared to you.” \*

God gave Moses another instruction: “Put your hand on your chest inside your robe.” Moses put his hand into his robe. When he brought his hand out, it had a disease that made the skin look as white as snow.

Then God said, “Put your hand in your robe again.” Moses put his hand back inside his robe. This time when he brought it out, amazingly, the skin on his hand looked like the rest of his skin again. \*

{God said,} “{You can do that in front of the Israelite people, too.} And if they do not believe you or listen to you after seeing the first miracle, they will believe you when you perform the second miracle.

But if they do not believe you or listen to what you say even after you show them these two miracles, get some water from the Nile River, and pour it on the dry ground. When you do that, the water that you pour on the dry ground will become blood.” \*

Then Moses said to God, “But Lord, I am not good at speaking to people. I have never been and you talking to me has not made me better. I speak slowly and never know what to say.”

Then God said to him, “Do not forget that I, God, make people’s mouths! I make people unable to speak, or unable to hear, or able to see or not to see!

So go now, and I will help you speak, and I will tell you what to say.”

But Moses replied, “Oh Lord, I ask you, please choose anyone else to send!” \*

Then God became angry with Moses and said to him, “What about your brother Aaron, the descendant of Levi? I know he is a good speaker. He is on his way here right now. When he sees you, he will be very happy.

You will tell him what to say. I will help you both to speak and will tell you both what to do.

He will speak for you to the Israelite people. He will be your spokesman, and he will think of you as if you were me.

Be sure to take your staff with you, because you will perform miracles with it.” \*

Moses went back to his father-in-law, Jethro, and said to him, “Please let me go back to my relatives in Egypt to see if they are well.” Jethro said to Moses, “You may go. Be safe.”

{While he was still} in Midian, God told Moses {again}, “Go back to Egypt now, for everyone trying to kill you is now dead.”

So Moses put his wife and sons on a donkey and started going toward Egypt. He took the staff with him {as} God {had told him to do}. \*

God spoke to Moses again, “When you get to Egypt, be sure to do all the miracles that I have given you power to do in front of the king. But I will make him reject you so that he will not let the Israelites leave Egypt.

Then say to him, ‘This is what God says: “Israel is like my firstborn son,

and when I told you, ‘Let my son go, so that he may worship me,’ you refused. Therefore, I will kill your firstborn son!”’” \*

One night, as they were camping on the way to Egypt, God confronted {Moses} in order to kill him.

Then {Moses’ wife,} Zipporah, took a sharp stone knife and cut off the foreskin of their firstborn son. Then she touched the foreskin to {Moses’} feet and said, “You are really my husband by blood.”

She said, “a husband by blood,” because she had cut off their son’s foreskin. So God did not harm anyone. \*

Meanwhile, God said to Aaron, “Go into the desert to meet Moses.” So Aaron went and met Moses at the mountain where God met Moses and greeted him by kissing him.

Moses told Aaron everything that God had sent him {to Egypt to say to the king and the Israelites} and all the miracles that God had instructed him {to do}. \*

When Moses and Aaron arrived in Egypt, they called a meeting with all the Israelite leaders.

Aaron told them everything that God had told Moses and performed the miracles as the leaders watched.

The leaders believed Aaron and Moses. Because they heard that God had seen how miserable the Israelites were and had come down to help them, the leaders bowed down to worship him. \*