The Staff of Moses
1 Then Moses answered and said,
"But behold, they will not believe me,
and they will not listen to my voice,
and they will say,
Yahweh
[God]
has not appeared to you."
2 So
Yahweh [God] said to him,
"What is that in your hand?"
And he said, "A staff."
3 And he said,
"Cast it forth on the ground."
So he cast it forth on the ground,
and it became a snake,
and Moses fled from its presence.
4 Then Yahweh said to Moses,
"Stretch forth your hand
and seize it by the tail."
So he stretched forth his hand
and seized it,
and it became a staff in his palm.
5 "So that they might believe
that Yahweh
the God of their fathers
has appeared to you,
the God of Abraham,
and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.
6 Then Yahweh said to him again,
"Put now your hand into your cloak."
So he put his hand into his cloak,
and took it out.
And behold,
his hand was leprous as snow.
7 Then he said,
"Put your hand into your cloak."
So he put his hand into his cloak,
and took it out from his cloak,
and behold, it returned like his flesh.
8 And it will be,
if they will not believe
you, and they will not listen to the voice
of
the first sign,
that they will believe
the voice
of
the following sign.
9 And it will be,
if they will not believe
in these two signs either,
and they will not listen to your voice,
then take from the water of the canal
and pour it on the dry ground.
So will be the water
which you took from the canal,
and it will become as blood
on the dry ground.
10 Then Moses said to Yahweh,
"Please, my Lord,
I am not a man of words,
neither yesterday,
nor the day before,
nor since you have spoken to your servant,
for I am slow of mouth and slow of tongue."
11 But Yahweh said to him,
"Who made the mouth of man?
Or who makes the mute,
or the deaf, or the seeing,
or the blind?
Is it not I, Yahweh?"
12 "So now go,
and I will be with your mouth,
and I will teach you what to say."
13 Then he said,
"Please, Lord, send forth now.
By the hand send forth."
14 But the anger of Yahweh was kindled
against Moses, and he said,
"Is not Aaron your brother a Levite?
I know that he can speak words.
And also, behold he comes to meet you,
and he will see you
and his heart will be glad."
15 "And I will speak to him,
and I will put words in his mouth,
and I will be with his mouth
and with your mouth.
And I will show you both what you must do,
16 and he will speak for you to the people.
So it will be,
that he will be a mouth for you,
and you shall be a god for him.
17 And take this staff in your hand,
with which your shall do signs.
18 Then Moses went
and returned to Jethro his father-in-law,
and said to him,
"Let me go now,
and return to my brothers
which are in Egypt,
and see if they are alive anymore."
So Jethro
[he] said to Moses,
"Go in peace."
19 Then Yahweh [God] said to Moses
in Midian,
"Go, return to Egypt,
for all the men
who sought your life
are dead."
20 So Moses took his wife
and his children,
and rode upon a donkey,
and dwelled in the land of Egypt.
And Moses took the staff of God
in his hand.
21 Then
Yahweh said to Moses,
"When you go to return to Egypt,
watch all the miracles
which I
will place
in your hand,
and do them before Pharaoh.
But I will strengthen his heart,
and he will not send forth the people.
22 Then you shall say
to Pharaoh,
"Thus says Yahweh,
Israel is my firstborn son.
23 So I say to you,
send forth my son that he might serve me.
But if you refuse to send him forth,
behold, I will slay your firstborn son."
24 So it was, on the way to the inn,
that Yahweh met him
and sought to kill him.
25 But Zipporah took a sharp rock
and cut off the foreskin of her son,
and cast it at his feet, and said,
"You are as a bridegroom of blood to me,"
26 so he left him alone.
(At that time she said,
"A bridegroom of blood"
concerning circumcision.)
27 Then Yahweh said to Aaron,
"Go meet Moses in the wilderness."
So he went and met him
on the mountain of God and kissed him.
28 Then Moses told Aaron
all the words which Yahweh had sent him,
and all the signs
which he had commanded him.
29 Then Moses
and Aaron went
and gathered all the elders
of the sons of Israel,
30 and
Aaron spoke all the words
which Yahweh spoke to Moses,
and did the signs in the eyes of the people,
31 and the people believed.
And when they heard that
Yahweh
[God]
had visited the sons of Israel,
and that he saw their affliction,
they bowed down and worshipped.