 1 Moses said, They will not believe me nor listen to my voice, for they will say, The Lord has not appeared to you. 2 The Lord said to him, What is this in your hand? And he said, A staff. 3 He said, Throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent and Moses ran from it. 4 The Lord said to Moses, Put forth your hand and take it by the tail. So he put forth his hand and caught it and it became a staff in his hand. 5 Thus, they will believe 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 The Lord then said to him, Now put your hand in your coat+. So he put his hand into his coat+ and when he took it out, behold, his hand was as leprous as snow. 7 Then He said, Put your hand into your coat+ again. So he put his hand into his coat+ again and he brought it out, and behold, it was turned back again like his other flesh. 8 If they will not believe you, nor heed the message+ of the first sign, then they will believe the message+ of the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe these two signs nor heed+ you, then take from the water of the river and pour it on the dry land, and the water that you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land. 10 Moses said, O Lord, I was not eloquent before, nor since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. 11 The Lord said to him, Who made your mouth? Who makes the mute or the deaf or the seeing or the blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go, and I will be with you and teach you what to say. 13 He said, O Lord, I beseech+ you to send whomever you will send. 14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and He said, Do I not know Aaron the Levite, your brother, that he can speak well? He is coming to meet you and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 Speak to him and put words in his mouth. I will be with you and with him and I will teach you what to do. 16 He will be your spokesman to the people and he will be your mouth for you and you will speak to him instead of God. 17 Take this rod in your hand with which you will do signs. 18 Then Moses returned to his father in law Jethro and said to him, Please let me go 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 all the men who sought your life are dead. 20 So Moses 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 The Lord said to Moses, When you return to Egypt, see that you do all the wonders that I have put in your hand before Pharaoh. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord: Israel is my son, my firstborn. 23 I say to you, Let my son go so that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, I am going to kill your son, your firstborn. 24 It happened by the way, in the inn, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. 25 Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and threw it at his feet, and she said, Surely you are a bloody husband to me. 26 So He let him go. Then she said, You are a bloody husband, because of the circumcision. 27 The Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he met him on the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him and all the signs that He had commanded. 29 Then Moses and Aaron gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 Then the people believed. When they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked upon their affliction, they bowed and worshiped.
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