Exodus 4
4
Signs for Moses to Do
1Moses answered, “What if the elders of Israel won’t believe me? What if they won’t listen to me? Suppose they say, ‘The Lord didn’t appear to you.’ Then what should I do?”
2The Lord said to him, “What do you have in your hand?”
“A walking stick,” he said.
3The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”
So Moses threw it on the ground. It turned into a snake. He ran away from it. 4Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach your hand out. Take the snake by the tail.” So he reached out and grabbed the snake. It turned back into a walking stick in his hand. 5The Lord said, “When they see this sign, they will believe that I appeared to you. I am the Lord, the God of their fathers. I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. And I am the God of Jacob.”
6Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your coat.” So Moses put his hand inside his coat. When he took it out, the skin had become as white as snow. His hand was covered with a skin disease.
7“Now put it back into your coat,” the Lord said. So Moses put his hand back into his coat. When he took it out, the skin was healthy again. His hand was like the rest of his skin.
8Then the Lord said, “Suppose they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign. Then maybe they will believe the second one. 9But suppose they do not believe either sign. Suppose they will not listen to you. Then get some water from the Nile River. Pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will turn into blood on the ground.”
10Moses spoke to the Lord. He said, “Lord, I’ve never been a good speaker. And I haven’t gotten any better since you spoke to me. I don’t speak very well at all.”
11The Lord said to him, “Who makes human beings able to talk? Who makes them unable to hear or speak? Who makes them able to see? Who makes them blind? It is I, the Lord. 12Now go. I will help you speak. I will teach you what to say.”
13But Moses said, “Lord, please send someone else to do it.”
14Then the Lord became very angry with Moses. He said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you. He will be glad to see you. 15Speak to him. Tell him what to say. I will help both of you speak. I will teach you what to do. 16He will speak to the people for you. He will be like your mouth. And you will be like God to him. 17But take this walking stick in your hand. You will be able to do signs with it.”
Moses Returns to Egypt
18Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro. He said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt. I want to see if any of them are still alive.”
Jethro said, “Go. I hope everything goes well with you.”
19The Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt. All those who wanted to kill you are dead.” 20So Moses got his wife and sons. He put them on a donkey. Together they started back to Egypt. And he took the walking stick in his hand. It was the stick God would use in a powerful way.
21The Lord spoke to Moses. He said, “When you return to Egypt, do all the amazing things I have given you the power to do. Do them in the sight of Pharaoh. But I will make him stubborn. He will not let the people go. 22Then say to Pharaoh, ‘The Lord says, “Israel is like an oldest son to me. 23I told you, ‘Let my son go. Then he will be able to worship me.’ But you refused to let him go. So I will kill your oldest son.” ’ ”
24On the way to Egypt, Moses stopped for the night. There the Lord met him and was about to kill him. 25But Zipporah got a knife made out of flint. She circumcised her son with it. Then she touched Moses’ feet with the skin she had cut off. “Surely, you are a husband who has forced me to spill my son’s blood,” she said. 26So the Lord didn’t kill Moses. When she said “husband who has forced me to spill my son’s blood,” she was talking about circumcision.
27The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the desert to see Moses.” So Aaron greeted Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say. Moses also told him about all the signs the Lord had commanded him to do.
29Moses and Aaron gathered all the elders of Israel together. 30Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs in the sight of the people. 31And they believed. They heard that the Lord was concerned about them. He had seen their suffering. So they bowed down and worshiped him.
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Exodus 4: NIrV
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Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
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Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Exodus 4
4
1 Responding, Moses said, "They will not believe me, and they will not listen to my voice, but they will say: 'The Lord has not appeared to you.' "
2 Therefore, he said to him, "What is that you hold in your hand?" He answered, "A staff."
3 And the Lord said, "Cast it down upon the ground." He cast it down, and it was turned into a snake, so that Moses fled away.
4 And the Lord said, "Reach out your hand, and take hold of its tail." He reached out his hand and took hold, and it was turned into a staff.
5 "So may they believe," he said, "that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."
6 And the Lord said again, "Put your hand into your bosom." And when he had put it into his bosom, he brought it out leprous, resembling snow.
7 "Put your hand back," he said, "into your bosom." He put it back and brought it out again, and it was like the rest of his flesh.
8 "If they will not believe you," he said, "and will not listen to the sermon of the first sign, then they will believe the word of the subsequent sign.
9 But if they will not believe even these two signs, and they will not listen to your voice: take from the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land, and whatever you will have drawn from the river will be turned into blood."
10 Moses said: "I beg you, O Lord, I was not eloquent yesterday or the day before. And from the time that you have spoken to your servant, I have a greater impediment and slowness of tongue."
11 The Lord said to him: "Who made the mouth of man? And who has formed the mute and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? Was it not I?
12 Go on, therefore, and I will be in your mouth. And I will teach you what you shall say."
13 But he said, "I beg you, O Lord, send whomever else you would send."
14 The Lord, being angry at Moses, said: "Aaron the Levite is your brother. I know that he is eloquent. Behold, he is going out to meet you, and seeing you, he will rejoice in heart.
15 Speak to him, and put my words in his mouth. And I will be in your mouth and in his mouth, and I will reveal to you what you must do.
16 He will speak for you to the people, and he will be your mouth. But you will be with him in those things that pertain to God.
17 Also, take this staff into your hand; with it you will accomplish the signs."
18 Moses went forth, and he returned to Jethro, his father in law, and he said to him, "I shall go and return to my brothers in Egypt, so that I may see if they are still alive." And Jethro said to him, "Go in peace."
19 And so the Lord said to Moses in Midian: "Go, and return to Egypt. For all those who sought your life have died."
20 Therefore, Moses took his wife and his sons, and he placed them upon a donkey, and he returned into Egypt, carrying the staff of God in his hand.
21 And the Lord said to him, as he was returning to Egypt: "See that you accomplish, in the sight of Pharaoh, all the wonders that I have placed in your hand. I will harden his heart, and he will not release the people.
22 And you shall say to him: 'Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son.
23 I have said to you: Release my son, so that he may serve me. And you were not willing to release him. Behold, I will put to death your firstborn son.' "
24 And while he was on the journey, at an inn, the Lord met him, and he was willing to kill him.
25 For this reason, Zipporah took a very sharp stone, and she circumcised the foreskin of her son, and she touched his feet, and she said, "You are a bloody spouse to me."
26 And he released him, after she had said, "You are a bloody spouse," because of the circumcision.
27 Then the Lord said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." And he went directly to meet him on the mountain of God, and he kissed him.
28 And Moses explained to Aaron all the words of the Lord, by which he had sent him, and the signs which he had commanded.
29 And they arrived at the same time, and they gathered together all the elders of the sons of Israel.
30 And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had said to Moses. And he accomplished the signs in the sight of the people,
31 and the people believed. And they heard that the Lord had visited the sons of Israel, and that he had looked with favor upon their affliction. And falling prostrate, they worshiped.
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