Exodus 4

₁Moses said to the Lord: ‘Maybe the Israelites will not believe me and will not listen to me. They will say: “God did not appear to you.” ’ ₂Then the Lord said to Moses: ‘What is in your hand?’ And Moses said: ‘A staff.’ ₃The Lord said: ‘Throw it on the ground.’ When Moses threw it on the ground, it became a snake and Moses ran away from it. ₄Then the Lord said to Moses: ‘Grab the snake by its tail.’ Moses grabbed the snake and it changed into a staff again. ₅The Lord said to Moses: ‘When you go to the Israelites you must do this again, so that they will believe that the Lord has appeared to you. I am the God of their forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God_of_Jacob.’

₆The Lord also said to Moses: ‘Put your hand inside your cloak.’ Moses did and when he pulled out his hand, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. ₇The Lord said to him: ‘Put your hand inside your cloak again.’ Moses did and when he pulled out his hand from his cloak, it was healthy, like his whole body.

₈Then the Lord said: ‘If the Israelites do not believe when you show them the first sign, they will believe when they see the 2nd sign. ₉If they have seen these 2 signs and they still do not believe and do not listen to you, then you must take some water from the Nile River and throw it on the ground. The water will become blood.’

₁₀But Moses said to God: ‘I can not do it. I can not speak well. I could not speak well before You spoke to me and I can not speak well now after You have spoken to me. I speak slowly. It is difficult for me to speak and my language is not good.’

₁₁Then the Lord asked Moses: ‘Who gave people a mouth? Who makes a person mute or deaf? Who makes him see or not see? It is I, the Lord. ₁₂Now go. I will help you talk and I will teach you what to say.’

₁₃But Moses said: ‘Please, Lord, send someone else.’

₁₄The Lord became angry and said to Moses: ‘The Levite Aaron is your brother. I know he can speak well. He is coming to you and he will be happy to see you again. ₁₅You can speak to him and tell him what to say. I will help both of you to speak and I will tell you what to do. ₁₆Aaron will tell the people what you want to say. He will speak and you must tell him what to say. ₁₇You must take this staff with you so that you can do the signs with it.’

₁₈Moses went back to his father-in-law, Jethro, and said: ‘I want to go back to my people in Egypt. I want to see if they are still_alive.’ Jethro said to Moses: ‘You may go.’

₁₉The Lord talked to Moses in Midian and He said to Moses: ‘Go back to Egypt because the people who wanted to kill you are dead.’ ₂₀So Moses took his wife and his sons. He put them on a donkey and they went back to Egypt. Moses took the staff with him that he had to use to do the signs from God.

₂₁The Lord said to Moses: ‘When you go back to Egypt, you must do all the signs that I have shown you before Pharaoh. But I will make Pharaoh stubborn and he will not let the people go. ₂₂Then you must say to Pharaoh: “The Lord says: The people of Israel are to Me like my oldest son. ₂₃I tell you, you must let my son go so that he can worship Me. If you do not let him go, then I will kill your oldest son.” ’

₂₄One night when Moses and his family were camping on the way to Egypt, the Lord came to Moses and He wanted to kill him. ₂₅But Moses' wife Zipporah took a sharp stone and she cut off her son's foreskin. She took it and touched Moses' feet with it and she said to Moses: ‘You are my husband. This blood will protect you.’ ₂₆When she did that, the Lord went away from Moses and He did not kill him. Zipporah said this because she had circumcised her son.

₂₇The Lord said to Aaron: ‘Go and meet Moses in the desert.’

Aaron went and he met Moses on the mountain of God and he kissed him. ₂₈Moses told Aaron everything that the Lord had told him to do. He also told Aaron about all the signs he had to do. ₂₉So Moses and Aaron went to Egypt and they called all the Israelite leaders together. ₃₀Aaron told them everything that the Lord had said to Moses and Moses showed them all the signs. ₃₁The leaders believed them and when Moses and Aaron told them that the Lord had come to them and that He had seen how they suffered, they bowed down and worshipped Him.