1 Moses answered, “But look, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, ‘Yehovah has not appeared to you.’”
2 And Yehovah said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
And he said, “A shepherd’s staff.”
3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.”
So he threw it on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses ran away from it.
4 And Yehovah said to Moses, “Reach out your hand, and grab it by the tail.”
So he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a shepherd’s staff in his fist.
5 “Do this so that they may believe that Yehovah, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 And Yehovah said to him again, “Please put your hand inside your cloak.”
So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, look, his hand had a skin affliction, like snow.
7 And he said, “Put your hand inside your cloak again.”
So he put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, look, it had turned back like his normal skin.
8 “So it will be, if they will not believe you or listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the next sign. 9 And it will be, if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, then take some water of the Nile River, and pour it on the dry land. And the water which you take out of the Nile River will become blood on the dry land.”
10 Then Moses said to Yehovah, “O Master, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I have a heavy mouth and a heavy tongue.”
11 Yehovah said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, Yehovah? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak.”
13 Moses said, “Oh, Master, please send someone else.”
14 Yehovah’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “What about Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Also, look, he is coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 You shall speak to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. 16 He will be your spokesman to the people; and it will happen, that he will be to you a mouth, and you will be to him as God. 17 You shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”
18 Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.”
Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19 Yehovah said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return into Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.”
20 Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God’s rod in his hand. 21 Yehovah said to Moses, “When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go. 22 You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Yehovah says, Israel is my son, my firstborn, 23 and I have said to you, “Let my son go, that he may serve me;” and you have refused to let him go. Look, I will kill your firstborn son.’”
24 On the way at a lodging place, Yehovah met Moses and wanted to kill him. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”
26 So he let him alone. Then she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
27 Yehovah said to Aaron, “Go into the backcountry to meet Moses.”
He went, and met him on God’s mountain, and kissed him. 28 Moses told Aaron all Yehovah’s words with which he had sent him, and all the signs with which he had instructed him. 29 Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke all the words which Yehovah had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 The people believed, and when they heard that Yehovah had looked on the children of Israel, and that he had seen their oppression, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.