Exodus 4:1

Good News Translation

Then Moses answered the Lord , "But suppose the Israelites do not believe me and will not listen to what I say. What shall I do if they say that you did not appear to me?"

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Moshe answered, "But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.'"

King James Version
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.

Lexham English Bible
And Moses answered, and he said, "And if they do not believe me and they do not listen to my voice, but they say, ‘Yahweh did not appear to you?'"

New Century Version
Then Moses answered, "What if the people of Israel do not believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you'?"

New English Translation
Moses answered again, "And if they do not believe me or pay attention to me, but say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you'?"

Amplified Bible
Then Moses answered [the LORD] and said, "What if they will not believe me or take seriously what I say? For they may say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.'"

New American Standard Bible
Then Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.'"

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then Moses answered, and said, But lo, they will not beleeue me, nor hearken vnto my voyce: for they will say, The Lorde hath not appeared vnto thee.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then Moses answered and said, "What if they will not believe me and will not listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.'"

Contemporary English Version
Moses asked the Lord , "Suppose everyone refuses to listen to my message, and no one believes that you really appeared to me?"

Complete Jewish Bible
Moshe replied, "But I'm certain they won't believe me, and they won't listen to what I say, because they'll say, ‘ Adonai did not appear to you.'"

Darby Translation
And Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, Jehovah has not appeared to thee.

Easy-to-Read Version
Then Moses said to God, "But the Israelites will not believe me when I tell them that you sent me. They will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.'"

English Standard Version
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.'"

George Lamsa Translation
AND Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, The LORD has not appeared to you.

Christian Standard Bible®
Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

Literal Translation
And Moses answered and said, And, behold, they will not believe me and will not listen to my voice. For they will say, Jehovah has not appeared to you.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Moses answered, & sayde: Beholde, they shall not beleue me, ner heare my voyce, but shal saye: The LORDE hath not appeared vnto the.

American Standard Version
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, Jehovah hath not appeared unto thee.

Bible in Basic English
And Moses, answering, said, It is certain that they will not have faith in me or give ear to my voice; for they will say, You have not seen the Lord.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Moyses aunswered, and said: See, they wyll not beleue me, nor harken vnto my voyce: but wyll saye, The Lorde hath not appeared vnto thee.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And Moses answered and said: 'But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say: The lord hath not appeared unto thee.'

King James Version (1611)
And Moses answered, and said, But behold, they will not beleeue mee, nor hearken vnto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared vnto thee.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And Moses answered and said, If they believe me not, and do not hearken to my voice (for they will say, God has not appeared to thee), what shall I say to them?

English Revised Version
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.

Berean Standard Bible
Then Moses answered, "What if they refuse to believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.'"

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Moyses answeride, and seide, The comyns schulen not bileue to me, nether thei schulen here my vois; but thei schulen seie, The Lord apperide not to thee.

Young's Literal Translation
And Moses answereth and saith, `And, if they do not give credence to me, nor hearken to my voice, and say, Jehovah hath not appeared unto thee?'

Update Bible Version
And Moses answered and said, But, look, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, Yahweh has not appeared to you.

Webster's Bible Translation
And Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared to thee.

World English Bible
Moses answered, "But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, 'Yahweh has not appeared to you.'"

New King James Version
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."'

New Living Translation
But Moses protested again, "What if they won't believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord never appeared to you'?"

New Life Bible
Then Moses answered, "What if they will not believe me or listen to me? They might say, ‘The Lord has not shown Himself to you.'"

New Revised Standard
Then Moses answered, "But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.'"

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then responded Moses, and said, And lo! they will not believe me, neither hearken to my voice, - for they will say, Yahweh, hath not appeared unto thee.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Moses answered, and said: They will not believe me, nor hear my voice, but they will say: The Lord hath not appeared to thee.

Revised Standard Version
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.'"

THE MESSAGE
Moses objected, "They won't trust me. They won't listen to a word I say. They're going to say, ‘ God ? Appear to him? Hardly!'"

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.'"

Contextual Overview

¹ Then Moses answered the Lord , "But suppose the Israelites do not believe me and will not listen to what I say. What shall I do if they say that you did not appear to me?" ² So the Lord asked him, "What are you holding?" "A walking stick," he answered. ³ The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground." When Moses threw it down, it turned into a snake, and he ran away from it. ⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, "Reach down and pick it up by the tail." So Moses reached down and caught it, and it became a walking stick again. ⁵ The Lord said, "Do this to prove to the Israelites that the Lord , the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to you." ⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses again, "Put your hand inside your robe." Moses obeyed; and when he took his hand out, it was diseased, covered with white spots, like snow. ⁷ Then the Lord said, "Put your hand inside your robe again." He did so, and when he took it out this time, it was healthy, just like the rest of his body. ⁸ The Lord said, "If they will not believe you or be convinced by the first miracle, then this one will convince them. ⁹ If in spite of these two miracles they still will not believe you, and if they refuse to listen to what you say, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the ground. The water will turn into blood."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Exodus 4:31, Exodus 2:14, Exodus 3:18, Jeremiah 1:6, Ezekiel 3:14, Acts 7:25

Reciprocal: Genesis 18:1 - appeared Genesis 24:14 - thereby Exodus 3:12 - token Exodus 4:5 - That they Exodus 4:10 - eloquent Exodus 4:13 - send Numbers 16:28 - Hereby Judges 6:17 - show Judges 6:36 - If thou wilt

Cross-References

Genesis 3:15
I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel."

Genesis 4:25
Adam and his wife had another son. She said, "God has given me a son to replace Abel, whom Cain killed." So she named him Seth.

Genesis 5:29
and said, "From the very ground on which the Lord put a curse, this child will bring us relief from all our hard work"; so he named him Noah.

Numbers 31:17
So now kill every boy and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse,

1 John 3:12
We must not be like Cain; he belonged to the Evil One and murdered his own brother Abel. Why did Cain murder him? Because the things he himself did were wrong, and the things his brother did were right.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Moses answered and said,.... In reference to what Jehovah had declared to him in the latter end of the preceding chapter:

but, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice; this seems to contradict what God had said to him, Exodus 3:18 that they would hearken to his voice; but it can hardly be thought, that so good a man, and so great a prophet as Moses was, would directly fly in the face of God, and expressly contradict what he had said. To reconcile this it may be observed, that what the Lord says respects only the elders of Israel, this all the people; or Jehovah's meaning may be, and so this of Moses, that neither the one nor the other would regard his bare word, without some sign or miracle being wrought; for as his call was extraordinary, so it required something extraordinary to be done that it might be credited:

for they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto me: in the bush, as he would affirm he did, and might do it with the greatest assurance; yet the thing being so marvellous, and they not eyewitnesses of it, might distrust the truth of it, or be backward to receive it on his bare word; and this Moses might rather fear would be the case, from the experience he had had of them forty years ago, when it was more likely for him to have been a deliverer of them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

With this chapter begins the series of miracles which resulted in the deliverance of Israel. The first miracle was performed to remove the first obstacle, namely, the reluctance of Moses, conscious of his own weakness, and of the enormous power with which he would have to contend.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER IV

Moses continuing to express his fear that the Israelites would not

credit his Divine mission, 1;

God, to strengthen his faith, and to assure him that his countrymen

would believe him, changed his rod into a serpent, and the serpent

into a rod, 2-5;

made his hand leprous, and afterwards restored it, 6, 7;

intimating that he had now endued him with power to work such

miracles, and that the Israelites would believe, 8;

and farther assures him that he should have power to turn the water

into blood, 9.

Moses excuses himself on the ground of his not being eloquent, 10,

and God reproves him for his unbelief, and promises to give him

supernatural assistance, 11, 12.

Moses expressing his utter unwillingness to go on any account, God

is angry, and then promises to give him his brother Aaron to be his

spokesman, 13-16,

and appoints his rod to be the instrument of working miracles, 17.

Moses returns to his relative Jethro, and requests liberty to visit

his brethren in Egypt, and is permitted, 18.

God appears to him in Midian, and assures him that the Egyptians who

sought his life were dead, 19.

Moses, with his wife and children, set out on their journey to

Egypt, 20.

God instructs him what he shall say to Pharaoh, 21-23.

He is in danger of losing his life, because he had not circumcised

his son, 24.

Zipporah immediately circumcising the child, Moses escapes

unhurt, 25, 26.

Aaron is commanded to go and meet his brother Moses; he goes and

meets him at Horeb, 27.

Moses informs him of the commission he had received from God, 28.

They both go to their brethren, deliver their message, and work

miracles, 29, 30.

The people believe and adore God, 31.

NOTES ON CHAP. IV

Verse Exodus 4:1. They will not believe me — As if he had said, Unless I be enabled to work miracles, and give them proofs by extraordinary works as well as by words, they will not believe that thou hast sent me.