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Exodus 4

1Moses answered, “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to my voice, and say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you’?” 2Yahweh 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, and Moses fled from it. 4Yahweh said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and grasp its tail.” He reached out his hand and seized it, and it became a staff in his palm. 5“This is so that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

6Yahweh said to him further, “Put your hand inside your robe.” He put his hand inside his robe, and when he took it out, there was his hand, diseased, like snow. 7He said, “Put your hand back inside your robe.” He put his hand back inside his robe, and when he took it out of his robe, it had become like the rest of his flesh again. 8“If they do not believe you or listen to the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the latter sign. 9If they do 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 you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

10Moses said to Yahweh, “Please, Lord, I am not a man of words, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue.” 11Yahweh said to him, “Who gave a human being a mouth? Who makes someone mute or deaf, sighted or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? 12Now go. I will be with your mouth and teach you what to say.” 13He said, “Please, Lord, send by the hand of someone else.” 14Yahweh's anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know that he can indeed speak. Look, he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15You will speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and teach you what to do. 16He will speak to the people for you; he will be a mouth for you, and you will be God to him. 17Take this staff in your hand, with which you will perform the signs.”

18Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt and see whether they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” 19Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men seeking your life are dead.” 20Moses took his wife and sons, put them on the donkey, and started back to the land of Egypt. Moses took God's staff in his hand. 21Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put in your hand. But I will strengthen his heart, and he will not let the people go. 22Say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what Yahweh says: Israel is my son, my firstborn. 23I said to you: Let my son go so that he may serve me. But you refused to let him go. Look, I am going to kill your son, your firstborn.’”

24On the way, at a lodging place, Yahweh met him and sought to put him to death. 25Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son's foreskin, and touched his feet with it. She said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26So he let him alone. It was then that she said “a bridegroom of blood,” with reference to circumcision.

27Yahweh said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” He went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28Moses told Aaron all the words of Yahweh who had sent him, and all the signs he had commanded him to perform. 29Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the sons of Israel. 30Aaron spoke all the words Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and he performed the signs in the people's sight. 31The people believed. When they heard that Yahweh had attended to the sons of Israel and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.

Translation notes 6

4:6 — Diseased, like snow. The traditional rendering is “leprous.” The Hebrew skin-disease category does not identify modern Hansen's disease. “White” is implied by the snow comparison but not separately stated.

4:8 — The sign's voice. The signs are pictured as speaking: their evidence calls for belief. The draft preserves the image and its connection with listening to Moses' voice.

4:10–13 — Heavy of mouth. Moses describes difficulty speaking; the text does not diagnose stuttering or another condition. “Inside your robe” earlier renders the bodily location called the bosom. In verse 13 the Hebrew says “send by the hand of whom you will send”; “someone else” expresses the refusal implied by the exchange.

4:16 — God to him. Moses will supply God's words and Aaron will speak them. This describes their representative roles, not Moses becoming a deity.

4:21 — Strengthen his heart. This Hebrew verb ordinarily means strengthen or make firm; here it describes making Pharaoh obstinate. Exodus also uses verbs meaning make heavy and make hard. The draft keeps these distinctions and each statement's expressed agent.

4:24–26 — Him; feet; bridegroom of blood. The Hebrew does not name the person threatened or the owner of the feet. Moses is often understood, but his son is another proposed referent. “Feet” may be a euphemism for genitals. Zipporah's action and the unusual expression connect the danger's removal with circumcision, but the text does not explain every detail; no illness or motive has been added.