CHAPTER 4
Then Moses
answered,
“What if
they refuse
to believe
me
or
listen
to my voice?
For
they may say,
‘The LORD
has not
appeared
to you.’”
“Throw
it on the ground,”
said the Lord.
So Moses threw
it on the ground,
and it became
a snake,
and he
ran
from it.
“Stretch out
your hand
and grab it
by the tail,”
the LORD
said
to
Moses.
So he reached out
his hand
and caught
the snake,
and it turned back
into a staff
in his hand.
“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.”
Furthermore,
the LORD
said
to Moses,
“Put
your hand
inside your cloak.”
So he put
his hand
inside his cloak,
and when he took it out,
his hand
was leprous,
white as snow.
“Put your hand
back
inside
your cloak,”
said the LORD.
So Moses put his hand
back
inside
his cloak,
and when he took it out,
it was restored,
like the rest of his skin.
And the LORD said,
“If
they refuse
to believe
you
or
heed
the witness
of the first
sign,
they may believe
that
of the second.
But if
they do not
believe
even
these
two
signs
or listen
to your voice,
take
some water
from the Nile
and pour
it on the dry ground.
Then
the water
you take
from
the Nile
will become
blood
on the ground."
“Please,
Lord,”
Moses
replied,
“I
have never
been eloquent,
neither
in the past
nor
since
You have spoken
to
Your servant,
for
I
am slow
of speech
and
tongue.”
And the LORD
said
to him,
“Who
gave
man
his mouth?
Or
who
makes
him mute
or
deaf,
sighted
or
blind?
Is it not
I,
the LORD?
Then the LORD’s
anger
burned
against Moses,
and He said,
“Is not
Aaron
the Levite
your brother?
I know
that
he
can speak
well,
and
he
is now
on his way
to meet you.
When he sees you,
he will be glad
in his heart.
You are to speak
to him
and put
the words
in his mouth.
I
will help
both of you to speak,
and I will teach
you what
to do.
He
will speak
to
the people for you.
He
will be
your spokesman,
and it will be
as if you were
God
to him.
Then Moses
went
back
to
his father-in-law
Jethro
and said to him,
“Please
let me return
to
my brothers
in Egypt
and see
if they are still
alive.”
“Go
in peace,”
Jethro replied.
Now the LORD
had said
to
Moses
in Midian,
“Go
back
to Egypt,
for
all
the men
who sought
to kill you
are dead.”
So Moses
took
his wife
and sons,
put
them on
a donkey,
and headed back
to Egypt.
And he
took
the staff
of God
in his hand.
The LORD
instructed
Moses,
“When you go
back
to Egypt,
see that
you perform
before
Pharaoh
all
the wonders
that
I have put
within your power.
But I
will harden
his heart
so that he will not
let the people
go.
and I told you
to let My son
go
so that he may worship Me.
But you have refused
to let him go,
so
I
will kill
your firstborn
son!’”
But Zipporah
took
a flint knife,
cut off
her son’s
foreskin,
and touched
Moses’ feet with it.
“Surely
you are
a bridegroom
of blood to me,”
she said.
So the LORD let him alone.
(When
she said,
“bridegroom
of blood,”
she was referring to the circumcision.)
Meanwhile, the LORD
had said
to
Aaron,
“Go
and meet
Moses
in the wilderness.”
So he went
and met Moses
at the mountain
of God
and kissed
him.
And Moses
told
Aaron
everything
the LORD
had sent
him to say,
and all
the signs
He had commanded him to perform.
and Aaron
relayed
everything
that
the LORD
had said
to
Moses.
And Moses performed
the signs
before
the people,
and they
believed.
And when they heard
that
the LORD
had attended
to the Israelites
and
had seen
their affliction,
they bowed down
and worshiped.