Moses is empowered to confirm his mission with miracles: his brother Aaron is appointed to assist him.

¹ Responding, Moses said, “They will not believe me, and they will not listen to my voice, but they will say: ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ”

² Therefore, he said to him, “What is that you hold in your hand?” He answered, “A staff.”

³ And the Lord said, “Cast it down upon the ground.” He cast it down, and it was turned into a snake, so that Moses fled away.

⁴ And the Lord said, “Reach out your hand, and take hold of its tail.” He reached out his hand and took hold, and it was turned into a staff.

⁵ “So may they believe,” he said, “that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁶ And the Lord said again, “Put your hand into your bosom.” And when he had put it into his bosom, he brought it out leprous, resembling snow.

⁷ “Put your hand back,” he said, “into your bosom.” He put it back and brought it out again, and it was like the rest of his flesh.

⁸ “If they will not believe you,” he said, “and will not listen to the sermon of the first sign, then they will believe the word of the subsequent sign.

⁹ But if they will not believe even these two signs, and they will not listen to your voice: take from the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land, and whatever you will have drawn from the river will be turned into blood.”

¹⁰ Moses said: “I beg you, O Lord, I was not eloquent yesterday or the day before. And from the time that you have spoken to your servant, I have a greater impediment and slowness of tongue.”

¹¹ The Lord said to him: “Who made the mouth of man? And who has formed the mute and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? Was it not I?

¹² Go on, therefore, and I will be in your mouth. And I will teach you what you shall say.”

¹³ But he said, “I beg you, O Lord, send whomever else you would send.”

¹⁴ The Lord, being angry at Moses, said: “Aaron the Levite is your brother. I know that he is eloquent. Behold, he is going out to meet you, and seeing you, he will rejoice in heart.

¹⁵ Speak to him, and put my words in his mouth. And I will be in your mouth and in his mouth, and I will reveal to you what you must do.

¹⁶ He will speak for you to the people, and he will be your mouth. But you will be with him in those things that pertain to God.

¹⁷ Also, take this staff into your hand; with it you will accomplish the signs.”

¹⁸ Moses went forth, and he returned to Jethro, his father in law, and he said to him, “I shall go and return to my brothers in Egypt, so that I may see if they are still alive.” And Jethro said to him, “Go in peace.”

¹⁹ And so the Lord said to Moses in Midian: “Go, and return to Egypt. For all those who sought your life have died.”

²⁰ Therefore, Moses took his wife and his sons, and he placed them upon a donkey, and he returned into Egypt, carrying the staff of God in his hand.

²¹ And the Lord said to him, as he was returning to Egypt: “See that you accomplish, in the sight of Pharaoh, all the wonders that I have placed in your hand. I will harden his heart, and he will not release the people.¹

1. 4:21I shall harden, etc: Not by being the efficient cause of his sin; but by withdrawing from him, for his just punishment, the dew of grace that might have softened his heart; and so suffering him to grow harder and harder.(Challoner)

²² And you shall say to him: ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son.

²³ I have said to you: Release my son, so that he may serve me. And you were not willing to release him. Behold, I will put to death your firstborn son.’ ”

²⁴ And while he was on the journey, at an inn, the Lord met him, and he was willing to kill him.¹²

1. 4:24It seems, from the context of the story, that the one the Lord was willing to kill was not Moses, but the firstborn son of Moses. The prior verse spoke about firstborn sons, so the editor placed this event immediately after that text.(Conte)
2. 4:24The Lord met him, and would have killed him: This was an angel representing the Lord, who treated Moses in this manner, for having neglected the circumcision of his younger son; which his wife understanding, circumcised her child upon the spot, upon which the angel let Moses go.(Challoner)

²⁵ For this reason, Zipporah took a very sharp stone, and she circumcised the foreskin of her son, and she touched his feet, and she said, “You are a bloody spouse to me.”

²⁶ And he released him, after she had said, “You are a bloody spouse,” because of the circumcision.

²⁷ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the desert to meet Moses.” And he went directly to meet him on the mountain of God, and he kissed him.¹

1. 4:27This verse is out of chronological order, since, in the earlier verses, Moses has already left the mountain of God.(Conte)

²⁸ And Moses explained to Aaron all the words of the Lord, by which he had sent him, and the signs which he had commanded.

²⁹ And they arrived at the same time, and they gathered together all the elders of the sons of Israel.

³⁰ And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had said to Moses. And he accomplished the signs in the sight of the people,

³¹ and the people believed. And they heard that the Lord had visited the sons of Israel, and that he had looked with favor upon their affliction. And falling prostrate, they worshiped.