Exodus 4

1Moses answered and said, "But suppose they do not believe me nor listen to my voice, for they will say, 'Yahweh has not appeared to you.'"

2Yahweh said to him, "What is this in your hand?" He said, "A rod."

3He said, "Hurl it to the ground." He hurled it to the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it.

4Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and seize it by the tail.” He stretched out his hand, grasped it firmly, and it became a rod in his palm.

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

6Yahweh said to him again, "Put your hand into your bosom now." He put his hand into his bosom, and when he drew it out, his hand was leprous like snow.

7He said, "Put your hand back into your bosom." He put his hand back into his bosom, drew it out from his bosom, and there it was, restored like his flesh.

8It will happen that if they neither believe you nor listen to the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

9It will happen, if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, that you take water from the river and pour it on the dry land, and the water you take from the river will become blood on the dry land.

10Moses said to Yahweh, "Oh my Lord, I am not a man of words—not even from yesterday, not even from the day before yesterday, not even since you spoke to your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

11Yahweh said to him, "Who put a mouth in humankind? Or who puts one mute, or deaf, or sighted, or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh?"

12So now, go—I myself will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.

13He answered, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever you send."

14Yahweh's anger flared against Moses, and he said, "Is not Aaron your brother the Levite? I know that he speaks fluently. Look, he is coming to meet you, and when he sees you, he will rejoice in his heart."

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

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

17Take this staff in your hand, with which you shall perform the signs.

18Moses went and returned to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, "Please let me go and return to my brothers in Egypt, and see if they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."

19Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, "Go, return to Egypt, for all the men seeking your life are dead."

20Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God's staff in his hand.

21Yahweh said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, perform all the wonders that I have placed in your hand before Pharaoh, but I will harden his heart and he will not release the people."

22You shall say to Pharaoh, "Thus says Yahweh: Israel is my son, my firstborn."

23I said to you, "Send my son away so he can serve me," but you refused to send him. See, I will kill your son, your firstborn.

24Then at a lodging place on the road, Yahweh met him and intended to kill him.

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

26So he released him. Then she said, "A bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.

27Yahweh said to Aaron, "Go meet Moses in the wilderness." He went, met him at God's mountain, and kissed him.

28Moses told Aaron all the words of Yahweh by which he had sent him, and all the signs by which he had commanded him.

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

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

31The people believed, and when they heard that Yahweh had visited the children of Israel and seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.