Shared Word Translation
Exodus 4
Then Moses answered, saying, "But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, 'the LORD has not appeared to you.'" The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff." And He said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail." So he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 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."
Furthermore, the LORD said to him, "Now put your hand inside your cloak." So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. Then He said, "Put your hand back inside your cloak." So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out of his cloak, behold, it was restored like his flesh. "If they will not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second sign. But if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water that you take from the river will become blood on the ground."
Then Moses said to the LORD, "Please, Lord, I am not a man of words, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant. I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." The LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, and I will be with your mouth and will teach you what you shall speak." But he said, "Please, Lord, send someone else."
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. Moreover, he is coming to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he will be as a mouth for you, and you will be to him as God. Take in your hand this staff with which you shall do the signs."
Then Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, "Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive." And Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace." The LORD said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead." So Moses took his wife and his sons, set them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
The LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all the wonders before Pharaoh that I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD, Israel is my son, my firstborn. And I said to you, "Let my son go that he may serve me." But you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.'"
On the way, at a place where they lodged, the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched it to his feet, saying, "Surely, you are a bridegroom of blood to me." So He let him alone. It was then that she said, "A bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.
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. Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which He had sent him and all the signs that He had commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and performed the signs in the sight of the people. The people believed, and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel and had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.