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Signs for Moses

¹Moses replied, “But they will not trust me or pay attention to what I say. They will say, ‘The LORD never appeared to you.’” ²The LORD asked him, “What is that you are holding?” “A staff,” he answered. ³God said, “Throw it down on the ground.” So Moses threw it down, and it turned into a snake, and he ran away from it. ⁴Then the LORD told Moses, “Reach out and catch it by the tail.” He reached out and grasped it, and it became a staff again in his hand. ⁵“This is so that they will believe that the LORD has appeared to you, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” ⁶The LORD spoke to him again: “Put your hand inside the fold of your robe.” Moses did so, and when he drew it out, his hand was diseased, white as snow.^{a 7}“Now put your hand back inside your robe,” God said. Moses put it back, and when he took it out, it was healthy again like the rest of his body. ⁸“If they do not believe you or are not convinced by the first sign, the second sign may persuade them. ⁹But if they still do not believe, even after these two signs, and will not listen to you, draw some water from the Nile and pour it out on dry land. The water you draw from the river will become blood there on the land.” ¹⁰Then Moses said to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been a good speaker, not in the past, and not since you began speaking to your servant. My mouth is slow and my tongue is clumsy.” ¹¹The LORD answered him, “Who gave human beings a mouth? Who makes a person unable to speak or hear, or able to see, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? ¹²So go now. I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you are to say.” ¹³But Moses said, “Please, Lord, send someone else, whoever you choose.” ¹⁴Then the LORD became angry with Moses and said, “What about Aaron the Levite, your brother? I know he is a fluent speaker. In fact he is setting out now to meet you, and his heart will be full of joy when he sees you. ¹⁵You will talk to him and give him the words to say. I will be with you both as you speak, and I will show you what to do. ¹⁶He will speak to the people for you. He will be your spokesman, and you will be like God to him. ¹⁷And take this staff in your hand. You will use it to do the signs.”

Moses returns to Egypt

¹⁸Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said, “Please let me return to my own people in Egypt to find out whether they are still living.” Jethro told Moses, “Go, and may all be well with you.” ¹⁹The LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt. All those who wanted you dead have died themselves.” ²⁰So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and set out for the land of Egypt. In his hand he carried the staff of God. ²¹The LORD told Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, be sure to do in Pharaoh’s presence all the wonders I have given you power to perform. But I will make his heart stubborn, and he will refuse to let the people go.^{b 22}Then tell Pharaoh, ‘The LORD says this: Israel is my firstborn son. ²³I have told you, “Let my son go, so that he may worship me.” But you have refused to release him. Now I am going to put your firstborn son to death.’” ²⁴On the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, the LORD confronted Moses and was about to kill him.^{c 25}But Zipporah took a sharp flint and cut off her son’s foreskin. She touched Moses’ feet with it and said, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me!”^{de 26}So the LORD let him go. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.

Aaron meets Moses

²⁷The LORD said to Aaron, “Go out into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went, and he met him at the mountain of God and greeted him with a kiss. ²⁸Moses reported to Aaron all the words the LORD had sent him with, and all the signs he had ordered him to perform. ²⁹Moses and Aaron went and called together all the elders of the Israelites. ³⁰Aaron repeated all that the LORD had said to Moses, and he performed the signs in the people’s sight. ³¹And the people believed. When they heard that the LORD had come to help the Israelites and had seen their suffering, they bowed low and worshiped.