RSV Exodus 4 Chapter
4:1
Then Moses answered, 'But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, The LORD did not appear to you.''
4:2
The LORD said to him, 'What is that in your hand?' He said, 'A rod.'
4:3
And he said, 'Cast it on the ground.' So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent;and Moses fled from it.
4:4
But the LORD said to Moses, 'Put out your hand, and take it by the tail' -- so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand --
4:5
'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.'
4:6
Again, the LORD said to him, 'Put your hand into your bosom.' And he put his hand into his bosom;and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.
4:7
Then God said, 'Put your hand back into your bosom.' So he put his hand back into his bosom;and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.
4:8
'If they will not believe you,' God said, 'or heed the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
4:9
If they will not believe even these two signs or heed your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it upon the dry ground;and the water which you shall take from the Nile will become blood upon the dry ground.'
4:10
But Moses said to the LORD,'Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either heretofore or since thou hast spoken to thy servant;but I am slow of speech and of tongue.'
4:11
Then the LORD said to him, 'Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
4:12
Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.'
4:13
But he said, 'Oh, my Lord, send, I pray, some other person.'
4:14
Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, 'Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well;and behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.
4:15
And you 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 shall do.
4:16
He shall speak for you to the people;and he shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.
4:17
And you shall take in your hand this rod, with which you shall do the signs.'
4:18
Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, 'Let me go back, I pray, to my kinsmen in Egypt and see whether they are still alive.' And Jethro said to Moses, 'Go in peace.'
4:19
And the LORD said to Moses in Mid'ian, 'Go back to Egypt;for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.'
4:20
So Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on an ass, and went back to the land of Egypt;and in his hand Moses took the rod of God.
4:21
And the LORD said to Moses, 'When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power;but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
4:22
And you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son,
4:23
and I say to you, 'Let my son go that he may serve me';if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son.''
4:24
At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to kill him.
4:25
Then Zippo'rah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' feet with it, and said, 'Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!'
4:26
So he let him alone. Then it was that she said, 'You are a bridegroom of blood,' because of the circumcision.
4:27
The LORD said to Aaron, 'Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.' So he went, and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
4:28
And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which he had sent him, and all the signs which he had charged him to do.
4:29
Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.
4:30
And Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.
4:31
And the people believed;and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.