Moses Is Given Three Miraculous Signs
41But Moses responded, “What if they do not believe me and do not listen to my voice, but instead they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’?”
2So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
He said, “A staff.”
3He said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, so he ran away from it.
4The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and take it by the tail.”
He stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.
5The Lord said, “This sign is being given to you so that the Israelites will believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
6The Lord also said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous,[] as white as snow. 7Then the Lord said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.
8The Lord said, “If they do not believe you or do not respond to the first sign, they might believe because of the second sign. 9If they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you are to take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry land.”
There Is No Excuse Not to Trust the Lord
10But Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, either in the past or more recently or even since you started speaking to your servant, for my mouth and tongue are slow and clumsy.”[] 11So the Lord said to him, “Who made a mouth for people? Or who makes someone mute or deaf, able to see or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12Now go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you will speak.”
13But he said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”
14Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses, and the Lord said, “What about Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Look, he is already coming out to meet you. He will be very glad to see you. 15You will speak to him and put the words into his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his, and I will teach you what you are to do. 16He will speak to the people for you so that it will be as if he were your mouth, and you were God to him. 17You will also take this staff in your hand, the one with which you will perform the signs.”
Moses Returns to Egypt
18Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Let me go and return to my own people, who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.”
Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
