Exodus 4

1Then Moses answered and said, “But behold, they will not believe me, and they will not listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.’”

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

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

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

5so that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.

6Then Yahweh said to him again, “Please put your hand into your bosom.” So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he brought it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow.

7And he said, “Put your hand back into your bosom.” So he put his hand back into his bosom, and when he brought it out from his bosom, behold, it had returned like his flesh.

8And it will be, if they do not believe you and do not listen to the voice of the first sign, then they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

9And if they do not believe even these two signs and do not listen to your voice, then you shall take some of the water of the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.

10Then Moses said to Yahweh, “Please, Lord, I am not a man of words, neither yesterday nor the day before, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue.”

11And the LORD said to him, “Who has put a mouth on man? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or sighted, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”

12Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.

13But he said, “Please, my Lord, send by the hand of whomever you will send.”

14Then Yahweh’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. And also, look, he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will rejoice in his heart.”

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

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

17And take this staff in your hand, with which you will perform the signs.

18Then Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, so that I may see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

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

20Then Moses took his wife and his sons, set them on the donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

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

22Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh: Israel is my firstborn son.’

23And I said to you, ‘Send out my son so that he may serve me,’ but you refused to send him out. Look, I am about to kill your son, your firstborn.

24And it happened on the way, at the lodging place, that Yahweh met him and sought to put him to death.

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

26So he let him alone. Then she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.

27And Yahweh 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 all the words of Yahweh who had sent him, and all the signs that he had commanded him.

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

30Aaron spoke all the words that Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and he performed the signs before the eyes of the people.

31And the people believed; and when they heard that Yahweh had visited the sons of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.