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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Exodus 4
4
Moses’ Miraculous Signs
1#Ex 3:18And Moses answered and said, “But they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice. For they will say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ”
2#Ex 4:17; 4:20The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
And he said, “A rod.”
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#Ex 19:9; Ge 12:7“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.”
6#Nu 12:10; 2Ki 5:27The 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, his hand was as leprous as snow.
7#2Ki 5:14; Dt 32:39He 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 it was restored like his other flesh.
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.”
10#Ex 6:12; Jer 1:6Then 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.”
11#Ps 94:9; 146:8The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who made the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? 12#Isa 50:4; Jer 1:9Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you must say.”
13He said, “O my Lord, send, I pray, by the hand of whomever else You will send.”
14#Ex 4:27The 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. And also, he comes out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15#Isa 51:16; Nu 23:5; 23:12You 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. 16#Ex 7:1–2; 18:19What’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. 17#Ex 4:2You must take this rod in your hand, with which you will perform the signs.”
Moses Returns to Egypt
18#Ex 3:1Moses 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, and see whether they be yet alive.”
And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19#Ex 2:15; 2:23The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt, for all the men are dead who sought your life.” 20#Ex 17:9; Nu 20:8–9Moses 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.
21#Ex 3:20; 7:13The 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, but I will harden his heart, so that he shall not let the people go. 22#Jer 31:9; Hos 11:1You shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is My son, even My firstborn. 23#Ex 11:5; 12:29So I say to you, “Let My son go, that he may serve Me. And if you refuse to let him go, I will slay your son, even your firstborn.” ’ ”
24#Ge 17:14; 1Ch 21:16At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to kill him. 25#Jos 5:2–3Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and threw it at his feet, and said, “Surely a bloody husband are you to me.” 26So He let him go. Then she said, “A bloody husband you are, because of the circumcision.”
27#Ex 3:1Now the Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went, and met him at the mount of God, and kissed him. 28#Ex 4:8–9; 4:15–16Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him.
29#Ex 3:16Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. 30And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31#Ex 3:18; Ge 24:26And the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, they bowed down and worshipped.
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