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¹ 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.'" ² The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod." ³ He said, "Throw it on the ground." He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moshe ran away from it. ⁴ The LORD said to Moshe, "Put forth your hand, and take it by the tail." He put forth his hand, and laid hold of it, and it became a rod in his hand. ⁵ "That they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzchak, and the God of Ya`akov, has appeared to you." ⁶ The LORD said furthermore to him, "Now put your hand inside your cloak." He put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. ⁷ He said, "Put your hand inside your cloak again." He put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, behold, it had turned again as his other flesh. ⁸ "It will happen, if they will neither believe you nor listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. ⁹ It will happen, if they will not believe even these two signs, neither listen to your voice, that you shall take of the water of the river, and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land."

¹⁰ Moshe said to the LORD, "Oh, Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." ¹¹ The LORD said to him, "Who made man's mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn't it I, the LORD? ¹² Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak." ¹³ He said, "Oh, Lord, please send someone else." ¹⁴ The anger of the LORD was kindled against Moshe, and he said, "What about Aharon, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Also, behold, he comes forth to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. ¹⁵ You shall speak to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. ¹⁶ He will be your spokesman to the people; and it will happen, that he will be to you a mouth, and you will be to him as God. ¹⁷ You shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs."

¹⁸ Moshe went and returned to Yitro his father-in-law, and said to him, "Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Mitzrayim, and see whether they are still alive." Yitro said to Moshe, "Go in shalom." ¹⁹ The LORD said to Moshe in Midyan, "Go, return into Mitzrayim; for all the men who sought your life are dead." ²⁰ Moshe took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Mitzrayim. Moshe took God's rod in his hand. ²¹ The LORD said to Moshe, "When you go back into Mitzrayim, see that you do before Par`oh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go. <sup>22</sup> You shall tell Par`oh, 'Thus says the LORD, Yisra'el is my son, my firstborn, ²³ and I have said to you, "Let my son go, that he may serve me;" and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.'"

²⁴ It happened on the way at a lodging place, that the LORD met him and wanted to kill him. ²⁵ Then Tzipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me." ²⁶ So he let him alone. Then she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision. ²⁷ The LORD said to Aharon, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moshe." He went, and met him on God's mountain, and kissed him. ²⁸ Moshe told Aharon all the words of the LORD with which he had sent him, and all the signs with which he had charged him. ²⁹ Moshe and Aharon went and gathered together all the Zakenim of the children of Yisra'el. ³⁰ Aharon spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moshe, and did the signs in the sight of the people. ³¹ The people believed, and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Yisra'el, and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.