God Gives Powers to Moses

¹Moses answered, “But, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘YHWH has not appeared to you.’”

²YHWH said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

He said, “A staff.”

³He said, “Throw it on the ground.”

He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, but Moses ran away from it.

⁴YHWH said to Moses, “You must stretch out your hand and take it by the tail.”

He stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.

⁵“This is so that they may believe that YHWH, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁶Then YHWH said to him, “Now you are to put your hand inside your cloak.”

He put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.

⁷He said, “Now put your hand inside your cloak again.”

He put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, it was restored like his other flesh!

⁸“If they will not believe you or listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

⁹If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, then take some water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water that you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.”

¹⁰Moses said to YHWH, “O Lord, I am not eloquent. I have not been before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”

¹¹YHWH said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, YHWH?

¹²Now you must go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you should say.”

¹³Moses said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else.”

¹⁴YHWH’s anger burned against Moses, and ʜᴇ said, “What about Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak-speak. And look! He is coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

¹⁵Y’all are to speak to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach y’all what y’all must do.

¹⁶He will be your spokesman to the people. It will happen that he will be to you a mouth, and you will be to him as God.

¹⁷You are to take this staff in your hand, so you can perform the signs.”

¹⁸Moses 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 are still alive.”

Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

Moses Returns to Egypt

¹⁹YHWH said to Moses in Midian, “You must go and return into Egypt; for all the men who sought 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.

²¹YHWH said to Moses, “When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.

²²You are to tell Pharaoh, ‘YHWH says, Israel is my son, my firstborn,

²³and I told you, “Let my son go, so that he may serve me,” but you have refused to let him go. See now, I will kill your firstborn son.’”

²⁴On the way at a lodging place, YHWH met Moses and wanted to kill him.

²⁵Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”

²⁶So he let him alone. Then she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.

²⁷YHWH said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.”

He went, and met him on God’s mountain, and kissed him.

²⁸Moses told Aaron all YHWH’s words with which he had sent him, and all the signs with which he had instructed him.

²⁹Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel.

³⁰Aaron spoke all the words which YHWH had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.

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