Exodus 4

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¹Moses answered, and said, The commons shall not believe to me, neither they shall hear my voice; but they shall say, The Lord appeared not to thee.

²Therefore the Lord said to him, What is that that thou holdest in thine hand? Moses answered, A rod, that is, a shepherd’s staff.

³And the Lord said, Cast it forth into the earth; and he cast it forth, and it was turned into a serpent, so that Moses fled.

⁴And the Lord said, Hold forth thine hand, and take the tail thereof; he stretched forth his hand, and held it, and it was turned again into a rod.

⁵And the Lord said, That they believe, that the Lord God of thy fathers appeared to thee, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob.

⁶And the Lord said again to Moses, Put thine hand into thy bosom; and when he had put it into his bosom, he brought forth it leprous, at the likeness of snow.

⁷The Lord said, Again draw thine hand into thy bosom; Moses again drew in his hand, and brought it forth again, and it was like to the tother flesh.

⁸The Lord said, If they shall not believe to thee, neither shall hear the word of the former sign, either miracle, they shall believe to the word of the sign pursuing or that followeth;

⁹that if they believe not to these two signs, neither hear thy voice, take thou water of the flood, and shedded out it or pour it out up on the dry land, and whatever thing thou shalt draw up of the flood, it shall be turned into blood.

¹⁰Moses said, Lord, I beseech, I am not eloquent, that is, a fair speaker, from yesterday and the third day ago; and since thou hast spoken to thy servant, I am of more hindered, and of slower tongue.

¹¹The Lord said to him, Who made the mouth of a man, or who made a dumb man, and deaf, seeing, and blind? whether not I?

¹²Therefore go thou, and I shall be in thy mouth, and I shall teach thee what thou shalt speak.

¹³And Moses said, Lord, I beseech thee, send whom thou shalt.

¹⁴And the Lord was wroth against Moses, and said, I know, that Aaron, thy brother, of the lineage of Levi, is eloquent, that is, a fair speaker; lo! he shall go out into thy coming, and he shall see thee, and he shall be glad in heart.

¹⁵Speak thou to him, and put thou my words in his mouth, and I shall be in thy mouth, and in his mouth; and I shall show to you what ye ought to do.

¹⁶He shall speak for thee to the people, and he shall be thy mouth; forsooth thou shalt be to him in these things, that pertain to God.

¹⁷Also take thou this rod in thine hand, in which thou shalt do miracles.

¹⁸Moses went, and turned again to Jethro, his wife’s father, and said to him, I shall go, and turn again to my brethren into Egypt, that I see, whether they live yet. To whom Jethro said, Go thou in peace.

¹⁹Therefore the Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go thou, and turn again into Egypt; for all they be dead that sought thy life.

²⁰Moses took his wife, and his sons, and set them on an ass, and he turned again into Egypt, and he bare the rod of God in his hand.

²¹And the Lord said to him turning again into Egypt, See, that thou do all the wonders, which I have put in thine hand, before Pharaoh; I shall make hard his heart, and he shall not deliver the people;

²²and thou shalt say to him, The Lord saith these things, My first begotten son is Israel;

²³I said to thee, Deliver thou my son, that he serve me, and thou wouldest not deliver him; lo! I shall slay thy first begotten son.

²⁴And when Moses was in the way, in an inn, the Lord came to him, and would slay him.

²⁵Zipporah took anon a most sharp stone, and circumcised the rod of her son; and she touched Moses’ feet, and said, Thou art an husband of bloods to me.

²⁶And he let go him, after that she had said, Thou art an husband of bloods to me, for the circumcision.

²⁷Forsooth the Lord said to Aaron, Go thou into the coming of Moses into desert; which went against Moses into the hill of God, and kissed him.

²⁸And Moses told to Aaron all the words of the Lord, for which he had sent Moses; and he told him about the miracles, which the Lord had commanded.

²⁹And they came together, and gathered all the elder men of the sons of Israel.

³⁰And Aaron spake all the words, which the Lord had said to Moses, and he did the signs before the people;

³¹and the people believed; and they heard, that the Lord had visited the sons of Israel, and that he had beheld the torment of them; and they worshipped lowly, or meekly, the Lord.