Exodus 4 Then Moses answered and said: Yet behold, they shall not believe me, nor shall they hearken to my voice, for they shall say, Yahweh has not appeared to you.

CLV⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Then Moses answered and said: Yet behold, they shall not believe me, nor shall they hearken to my voice, for they shall say, Yahweh has not appeared to you. ² Now Yahweh said to him: What is this in your hand? And he answered: A rod. ³ Then He said: Fling it to the earth. So he flung it to the earth, and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from its presence. ⁴ Then Yahweh said to Moses: Put forth your hand and take hold of its tail (so he put forth his hand and held fast to it, and it became a rod in his palm. ⁵ that they may believe that Yahweh, the Elohim of their fathers, appeared to you, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac and the Elohim of Jacob. ⁶ And Yahweh said to him further: Now bring your hand into your bosom. So he brought his hand into his bosom and brought it forth from his bosom, and behold, his hand was leprous as snow. ⁷ Then He said: Restore your hand to your bosom. So he restored his hand to his bosom and brought it forth from his bosom, and, behold, it was restored as his other flesh. ⁸ Hence it will come to be should they not believe you nor hearken to the voice of the first sign, they may believe the voice of the latter sign. ⁹ Yet it will come to be even should they not believe these two signs, nor hearken to your voice, then you will take some of the water of the waterway and pour it out on the dry land. And the waters which you are taking from the waterway will come to be, yea will come to be blood on the dry land. ¹⁰ Then Moses said to Yahweh: O, my Lord! I am no man of words even from yesterday, even from three days ago, even since You spoke to Your servant, for I am heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue. ¹¹ Yahweh said to him: Who make the mouth for a human or Who is making one mute or deaf or with eye unclosed or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? ¹² And now go, and I shall come to be with your mouth and direct you what you shall speak. ¹³ Yet he said: O, my Lord! Send, I pray, by the hand of whomsoever You should send. ¹⁴ Then the anger of Yahweh grew hot against Moses. And He said: Is there not Aaron, the Levite, your brother? I know that he can speak, yea speak. And, moreover, behold, he is coming forth to meet you, and he will see you and rejoice in his heart. ¹⁵ You will speak to him and place the words in his mouth. And I shall come to be with your mouth and with his mouth and direct both of you as to what you shall do. ¹⁶ So he will speak for you to the people; it will come to be that he shall become a mouth for you, and you shall become an elohim for him. ¹⁷ And this rod shall you take in your hand with which you shall do the signs. ¹⁸ Then Moses went and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him: Let me go, I pray, and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and let me see whether they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses: Go in peace. ¹⁹ Then Yahweh said to Moses in Midian: Go! Return to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your soul have died. ²⁰ So Moses took his wife and his sons and let them ride on the donkey and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the rod of the One, Elohim, in his hand. ²¹ And Yahweh said to Moses: When you go to return to Egypt, see to all the miracles which I place in your hand, that you do them before Pharaoh. Yet I shall make his heart steadfast, and he shall not dismiss the people. ²² So you will say to Pharaoh: Thus says Yahweh, My son, My firstborn, is Israel. ²³ And I am saying to you: Dismiss My son that he may serve Me, yet should you refuse to dismiss him, behold, I shall be killing your son, your firstborn. ²⁴ It came to be on the way, in the lodging, that a messenger of Yahweh encountered him and sought to put him to death. ²⁵ So Zipporah took a chert knife and cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to his feet and said: Because one of bloody affinity are you to me. ²⁶ And he slacked off from him. Then it was that she said, blood affinity, referring to circumcisions. ²⁷ Yahweh said to Aaron: Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and encountered him at the mount of Elohim, and kissed him. ²⁸ Now Moses told to Aaron all the words of Yahweh with which He had sent him, and all the signs with which He had instructed him. ²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the sons of Israel. ³⁰ Aaron spoke all the words which Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and he did the signs before the eyes of the people. ³¹ Hence the people believed; when they heard that Yahweh notices the sons of Israel and that He sees their humiliation, then they bowed their heads and bowed themselves down.