Exodus 4
4
Moses’ Miraculous Signs
1Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice. # Ex 3:18 For they will say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ”
2The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
And he said, “A rod.” # Ex 4:17, 20
3He said, “Throw it on the ground.”
And he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent. Then Moses fled from it. 4Then the Lord said to Moses, “Put forth your hand and take it by the tail.” And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. 5“This is so that they may believe that the Lord, # Ex 19:9 the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” # Ge 12:7
6The Lord said furthermore to him, “Now put your hand into your bosom.” He put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. # Nu 12:10; 2Ki 5:27
7He said, “Put your hand into your bosom again.” So he put his hand into his bosom again, and brought it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored # Dt 32:39 like his other flesh. # 2Ki 5:14
8“If they will not believe you, nor listen to the voice of the first sign, then they may believe the voice of the latter sign. 9But if they will not believe also these two signs or listen to your voice, then you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land, and the water which you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.”
10Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant. But I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” # Ex 6:12; Jer 1:6
11The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who made the mute, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? # Ps 94:9; 146:8 12Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you must say.” # Isa 50:4; Jer 1:9
13He said, “O my Lord, send, I pray, by the hand of whomever else You will send.”
14The anger of the Lord was inflamed against Moses, and He said, “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. # Ex 4:27 15You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you must do. # Nu 23:5, 12; Isa 51:16 16What’s more, he will be your spokesman to the people, and he will be as a mouth for you, and you will be as God to him. # Ex 7:1–2 17You must take this rod in your hand, # Ex 4:2 with which you will perform the signs.”
Moses Returns to Egypt
18Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law # Ex 3:1 and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive.”
And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt, for all the men are dead who sought your life.” # Ex 2:15, 23 20Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. # Ex 17:9; Nu 20:8–9
21The Lord said to Moses, “When you go to return into Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand, # Ex 3:20 but I will harden his heart, # Ex 7:13 so that he shall not let the people go. 22You shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is My son, # Hos 11:1 even My firstborn. # Jer 31:9 23So I say to you, “Let My son go, that he may serve Me. And if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your firstborn son.” ’ ” # Ex 11:5; 12:29
24At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to kill him. # Ge 17:14; 1Ch 21:16 25Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, # Jos 5:2–3 and threw it at his feet, and said, “Surely you are a bloody husband to me!” 26So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a bloody husband,” because of the circumcision.
27Now the Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mount of God, # Ex 3:1 and kissed him. 28Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, # Ex 4:15–16 and all the signs which He had commanded him. # Ex 4:8–9
29Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the Israelites. # Ex 3:16 30And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31And the people believed. # Ex 3:18 And when they heard that the Lord had visited the Israelites and that He had looked on their affliction, they bowed down and worshipped. # Ge 24:26
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version
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