Exodus 4

1Moses answered, “But what if they do not believe me or listen to me? They may say, ‘Yahweh did not appear to you.’”

2Yahweh said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”

3Yahweh said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and Moses ran from it.

4Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So he reached out his hand and caught hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.

5“This is so that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

6Yahweh also said to him, “Now put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand had a serious skin disease, white like snow.

7Then he said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out of his cloak, it was restored like the rest of his body.

8“If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second sign.

9And if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to you, take some 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.”

10But Moses said to Yahweh, “Please, Lord, I have never been a man of words, not in the past and not since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

11Yahweh said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh?

12Now go. I will be with your mouth and will teach you what to say.”

13But he said, “Please, Lord, send someone else, whoever you will send.”

14Then Yahweh’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak well. In fact, he is already coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

15You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what to do.

16He will speak to the people for you. He will be a mouth for you, and you will be as God to him.

17And take this staff in your hand, so that you can perform the signs with it.”

18Then 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 whether they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

19Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.”

20So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

21Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go.

22Then you are to say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what Yahweh says: Israel is my firstborn son.

23I told you, “Let my son go so that he may worship me,” but you refused to let him go. So now I will kill your firstborn son.’”

24On the way, at a place where they spent the night, Yahweh met him and tried to kill him.

25But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched his feet with it. She said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”

26So he let him alone. It was then that she said “a bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.

27Yahweh said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

28Moses told Aaron everything Yahweh had sent him to say and all the signs he had commanded him to perform.

29Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the Israelites.

30Aaron told them everything Yahweh had said to Moses, and he performed the signs in the sight of the people.

31The people believed. When they heard that Yahweh had taken note of the Israelites and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.