Exodus 4-5

New King James Version

Miraculous Signs for Pharaoh

4 Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ”

² So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

He said, “A rod.”

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 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), ⁵ “that they may ^(A)believe that the ^(B)Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁶ Furthermore the Lord said to him, “Now put your hand in your bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, ^(C)like snow. ⁷ And He said, “Put your hand in your bosom again.” So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, ^(D)it was restored like his other flesh. ⁸ “Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the ^(E)first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. ⁹ And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from ^[a]the river and pour it on the dry land. ^(F)The water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land.”

¹⁰ Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but ^(G)I am slow of speech and ^[b]slow of tongue.”

¹¹ So the Lord said to him, ^(H)“Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? ¹² Now therefore, go, and I will be ^(I)with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

¹³ But he said, “O my Lord, ^(J)please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”

¹⁴ So ^(K)the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your ^(L)brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, ^(M)he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. ¹⁵ Now ^(N)you shall speak to him and ^(O)put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and ^(P)I will teach you what you shall do. ¹⁶ So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and ^(Q)you shall be to him as God. ¹⁷ And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”

Moses Goes to Egypt

¹⁸ So Moses went and returned to ^(R)Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.”

And Jethro said to Moses, ^(S)“Go in peace.”

¹⁹ Now the Lord said to Moses in ^(T)Midian, “Go, return to ^(U)Egypt; for all the men who ^(V)sought your life are dead.” ²⁰ Then Moses ^(W)took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took ^(X)the rod of God in his hand.

²¹ And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those ^(Y)wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But ^(Z)I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. ²² Then you shall ^(AA)say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^(AB)“Israel is My son, ^(AC)My firstborn. ²³ So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed ^(AD)I will kill your son, your firstborn.” ’ ”

²⁴ And it came to pass on the way, at the ^(AE)encampment, that the Lord ^(AF)met him and sought to ^(AG)kill him. ²⁵ Then ^(AH)Zipporah took ^(AI)a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and ^[c]cast it at ^[d]Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!” ²⁶ So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a ^[e]husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision.

²⁷ And the Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness ^(AJ)to meet Moses.” So he went and met him on ^(AK)the mountain of God, and kissed him. ²⁸ So Moses ^(AL)told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the ^(AM)signs which He had commanded him. ²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron ^(AN)went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. ^30 (AO)And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people. ³¹ So the people ^(AP)believed; and when they heard that the Lord had ^(AQ)visited the children of Israel and that He ^(AR)had looked on their affliction, then ^(AS)they bowed their heads and worshiped.

First Encounter with Pharaoh

5 Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may ^[f]hold ^(AT)a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ”

² And Pharaoh said, ^(AU)“Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, ^(AV)nor will I let Israel go.”

³ So they said, ^(AW)“The God of the Hebrews has ^(AX)met with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with ^(AY)pestilence or with the sword.”

⁴ Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your ^(AZ)labor.” ⁵ And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are ^(BA)many now, and you make them rest from their labor!”

⁶ So the same day Pharaoh commanded the ^(BB)taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, ⁷ “You shall no longer give the people straw to make ^(BC)brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸ And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹ Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words.”

¹⁰ And the taskmasters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I will not give you straw. ¹¹ Go, get yourselves straw where you can find it; yet none of your work will be reduced.’ ” ¹² So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. ¹³ And the taskmasters forced them to hurry, saying, “Fulfill your work, your daily quota, as when there was straw.” ¹⁴ Also the ^(BD)officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were ^(BE)beaten and were asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as before?”

¹⁵ Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why are you dealing thus with your servants? ¹⁶ There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, ‘Make brick!’ And indeed your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people.”

¹⁷ But he said, “You are idle! Idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ ¹⁸ Therefore go now and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the quota of bricks.” ¹⁹ And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble after it was said, “You shall not reduce any bricks from your daily quota.”

²⁰ Then, as they came out from Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them. ^21 (BF)And they said to them, “Let the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made ^[g]us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

Israel’s Deliverance Assured^(BG)

²² So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? ²³ For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.”