Chapter 4
Moses Is Encouraged and Receives the Gift of Working Prodigies.[a] 1 Moses answered, “Behold, they will not believe me nor listen to my voice. They will say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ” 2 The Lord said to him, “What is in your hand?” He answered, “A staff.” 3 The Lord said, “Throw it to the ground.” He threw the staff to the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses retreated away from it. 4 The Lord said to Moses, “Reach out and take it by its tail.” He reached out and took it, and it became a staff again in his hand. 5 “This is so that they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
6 The Lord continued, “Place your hand inside your tunic.” He placed his hand in his tunic and then drew it out. Behold, his hand was covered with leprosy and was white as the snow.[b] 7 The Lord said, “Put your hand back in your tunic.” He put his hand back in the tunic and drew it out again. Behold, it was once again like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you and heed the first sign, then they will believe the message of the second. 9 If they do not believe either of the signs and will not listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on dry ground. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.”
10 Aaron, Spokesman for Moses. Moses said to the Lord, “My Lord, I am not eloquent. I have never been so in the past nor now that you have begun to speak to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” 11 The Lord told him, “Who has made man with a mouth? Who can make him mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go! I will be with your mouth and supervise what you are to say.” 13 Moses said, “Forgive me, my Lord, but please send someone else.” 14 The Lord became angry with Moses and said to him, “Do you not have a brother, Aaron, a Levite. I know that he can speak well. He is now on his way here to meet you. When he sees you, his heart will rejoice.[c] 15 You will speak to him and place the words he is to say in his mouth. I will be with you and with him while you speak and I will tell you what you are to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you. It will be as if he is your mouth and you are his God. 17 Take this staff in your hand and perform the signs with it.”
18 Moses Returns to Egypt.[d] Moses left and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and told him, “Let me leave and return to my brothers who are in Egypt to see if they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” 19 The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt, for those who sought to kill you are dead.” 20 Moses took his wife and his sons, placed them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses held the staff of God in his hand.
21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you do all the signs that I have placed in your hand in the presence of Pharaoh. But I will harden his heart and he will not let my people go. 22 You will say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is my firstborn son. 23 I have told you to let my son go so that he might serve me, but you have refused to let him leave. Therefore, I will kill your firstborn son.” ’ ”
24 [e]On the way, when they were camped for the night, the Lord came and tried to kill Moses. 25 Zipporah took a flint knife and cut the foreskin of her son and with it touched Moses’ feet and said, “You are now my spouse of blood.” 26 Then God let him go. She said “spouse of blood” because of the circumcision.
27 Moses Makes Contact with His People.[f] The Lord said to Aaron, “Go meet Moses in the desert.” He went and met Moses on the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Moses told Aaron all the words that God had sent him to say and about all the signs that he had commanded him to do. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled the elders of the children of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke to the people, telling them all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and performing the signs before the people. 31 The people believed when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and had seen their affliction. They knelt down in worship.
Footnotes
- Exodus 4:1 The Lord gives his help to those whom he sends to testify in his name. With the coming of Aaron on the scene, the work of the priestly line is inaugurated.
- Exodus 4:6 Moses is given a staff and leprous hand from God as visible evidence to show Pharaoh that he was from God.
- Exodus 4:14 This verse indicates one of the functions of Aaron as priest.
- Exodus 4:18 Moses returns to Egypt, and it is obvious that Pharaoh’s obstinacy must be overcome, an obstinacy that the author—in keeping with the ancient mentality—attributes to God without occupying himself about human liberty. It is thus a way of saying that the Lord arranges events to bring about his plan.
- Exodus 4:24 The Lord came and tried to kill Moses: the reference may be to an incident similar to that described in Gen 32:25-33. Moses’ wife circumcises the boy and with his foreskin “touches [the] feet” (i.e., the genitals) of Moses. This seems intended as a rite that replaces circumcision, which Moses had not undergone. Spouse of blood: perhaps signifies “protected by the blood.”
- Exodus 4:27 Moses makes contact with his people and awakens in them the hope of liberation.