1Then Moses answered and said, “But look, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘Yahweh did not appear to you.’”
2And Yahweh said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.”
3And he said, “Throw it to the ground.” So he threw it to the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it.
4Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and seize it by its tail.” So he stretched out his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his palm.
5“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.”
6And Yahweh said to him further, “Bring your hand into your bosom.” So he brought his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow.
7And he said, “Return your hand to your bosom.” So he returned his hand to his bosom, and when he took it out from his bosom, behold, it had been restored like his flesh.
8“And it shall be, if they will not believe you or heed the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
9And it shall be, if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, then you shall take some of the water of the Nile and pour it out on the dry ground, and the water that you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
10But 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 heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue.”
11And Yahweh said to him, “Who gave man a mouth? Or who makes one mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh?
12Now go, and I myself will be with your mouth and will teach you what you are to speak.”
13But he said, “Please, my Lord, send by the hand of whomever you will send.”
14Then Yahweh’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know that he can indeed speak. And also, behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you he will rejoice in his heart.
15You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I myself will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what you are to do.
16He will speak for you to the people, and it shall be that he will serve as a mouth for you, and you will serve as God for him.
17And this staff you shall take in your hand, with which you shall perform the signs.”
18So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my kinsmen who are in Egypt and see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19And Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are dead.”
20So Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on the donkey and returned to the land of Egypt; and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
21And Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go to return to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your hand. But I will strengthen his heart, and he will not let the people go.
22Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh: Israel is my son, my firstborn.
23And I say to you, Let my son go, that he may serve me; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I am about to kill your son, your firstborn.’”
24And it happened on the way, at the lodging place, that Yahweh met him and sought to put him to death.
25Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched it to his feet, and she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”
26So he let him alone. It was then she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” with reference to the circumcision.
27And Yahweh said to Aaron, “Go to meet Moses in the wilderness.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
28And Moses told Aaron all the words of Yahweh with which he had sent him, and all the signs that he had commanded him.
29Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the sons of Israel.
30And Aaron spoke all the words that Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and he performed the signs before the eyes of the people.
31And the people believed. And they heard that Yahweh had visited the sons of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, and they bowed down and worshiped.
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