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Exodus 4, RSV

4:1 Then Moses answered, "But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, `The LORD did not appear to you.'"

4:2 The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod."

4:3 And he said, "Cast it on the ground." So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.

4:4 But the LORD said to Moses, "Put out your hand, and take it by the tail" -- so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand --

4:5 "that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."

4:6 Again, the LORD said to him, "Put your hand into your bosom." And he put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.

4:7 Then God said, "Put your hand back into your bosom." So he put his hand back into his bosom; and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.

4:8 "If they will not believe you," God said, "or heed the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.

4:9 If they will not believe even these two signs or heed your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it upon the dry ground; and the water which you shall take from the Nile will become blood upon the dry ground."

4:10 But Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either heretofore or since thou hast spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of speech and of tongue."

4:11 Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

4:12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."

4:13 But he said, "Oh, my Lord, send, I pray, some other person."

4:14 Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, "Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well; and behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

4:15 And you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do.

4:16 He shall speak for you to the people; and he shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.

4:17 And you shall take in your hand this rod, with which you shall do the signs."

4:18 Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, "Let me go back, I pray, to my kinsmen in Egypt and see whether they are still alive." And Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."

4:19 And the LORD said to Moses in Mid'ian, "Go back to Egypt; for all the men who were seeking your life are dead."

4:20 So Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on an ass, and went back to the land of Egypt; and in his hand Moses took the rod of God.

4:21 And the LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

4:22 And you shall say to Pharaoh, `Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son,

4:23 and I say to you, "Let my son go that he may serve me"; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son.'"

4:24 At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to kill him.

4:25 Then Zippo'rah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' feet with it, and said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!"

4:26 So he let him alone. Then it was that she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.

4:27 The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." So he went, and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

4:28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which he had sent him, and all the signs which he had charged him to do.

4:29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.

4:30 And Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.

4:31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

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