1.
Moses answered and said, "Behold they will not believe me, and they will not heed my voice, but they will say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.' "
2.
And the Lord said to him, "What is this in your hand?" And he said, "A staff."
3.
And He said, "Cast it to the ground," and he cast it to the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it.
4.
And the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch forth your hand and take hold of its tail." So Moses stretched forth his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his hand.
5.
"In order that they believe that the Lord, the God of their forefathers, has appeared to you, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
6.
And the Lord said further to him, "Now put your hand into your bosom," and he put his hand into his bosom, and he took it out, and behold, his hand was leprous like snow.
7.
And he said, "Put your hand back into your bosom," and he put his hand back into his bosom, and [when] he took it out of his bosom, it had become again like [the rest of] his flesh.
8.
"And it will come to pass, that if they do not believe you, and they do not heed the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the last sign.
9.
And it will come to pass, if they do not believe either of these two signs, and they do not heed your voice, you shall take of the water of the Nile and spill it upon the dry land, and the water that you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry land."
10.
Moses said to the Lord, "I beseech You, O Lord. I am not a man of words, neither from yesterday nor from the day before yesterday, nor from the time You have spoken to Your servant, for I am heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue."
11.
But the Lord said to him, "Who gave man a mouth, or who makes [one] dumb or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
12.
So now, go! I will be with your mouth, and I will instruct you what you shall speak. "
13.
But he said, "I beseech You, O Lord, send now [Your message] with whom You would send."
14.
And the Lord's wrath was kindled against Moses, and He said, "Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know that he will surely speak, and behold, he is coming forth toward you, and when he sees you, he will rejoice in his heart.
15.
You shall speak to him, and you shall put the words into his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will instruct you [both] what you shall do.
16.
And he will speak for you to the people, and it will be that he will be your speaker, and you will be his leader.
17.
And you shall take this staff in your hand, with which you shall perform the signs."
18.
Moses went and returned to Jether, his father in law, and he said to him, "Let me go now and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and let me see whether they are still alive." So Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."
19.
The Lord said to Moses in Midian, "Go, return to Egypt, for all the people who sought your life have died."
20.
So Moses took his wife and his sons, mounted them upon the donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
21.
The Lord said to Moses, "When you go to return to Egypt, see all the signs that I have placed in your hand and perform them before Pharaoh, but I will strengthen his heart, and he will not send out the people.
22.
And you shall say to Pharaoh, 'So said the Lord, "My firstborn son is Israel." '
23.
So I say to you, 'Send out My son so that he will worship Me, but if you refuse to send him out, behold, I am going to slay your firstborn son.' "
24.
Now he was on the way, in an inn, that the Lord met him and sought to put him to death.
25.
So Zipporah took a sharp stone and severed her son's foreskin and cast it to his feet, and she said, "For you are a bridegroom of blood to me."
26.
So He released him. Then she said, "A bridegroom of blood concerning the circumcision."
27.
The Lord said to Aaron, "Go toward Moses, to the desert." So he went and met him on the mount of God, and he kissed him.
28.
And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him and all the signs that He had commanded him.
29.
So Moses and Aaron went, and they assembled all the elders of the children of Israel.
30.
And Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses, and he performed the signs before the eyes of the people.
31.
And the people believed, and they heard that the Lord had remembered the children of Israel, and they kneeled and prostrated themselves.
