Exodus 4

Moses answered, "But look, they will not believe me or listen to what I say. They will say, 'The LORD did not appear to you.'"

1And 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.

NoteLORD printed in capitals stands for the personal name of God in Hebrew, four consonants usually written YHWH. From early times Jewish practice was to avoid pronouncing that name and to say "the Lord" instead; English Bibles keep the custom by printing LORD in capitals wherever the name occurs, and "Lord" normally where the ordinary Hebrew word for master stands.

2The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff."

2And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

NoteKJV "rod" means a shepherd's staff: a long wooden stick used for walking and for guiding and controlling animals. A staff was also a common mark of a man's standing and authority.

3The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and Moses ran away from it.

3And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

4The LORD said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand.

4And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

5"Do this so they 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."

5That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.

NoteAbraham, Isaac and Jacob were three generations of a single family (grandfather, son and grandson) from whom the Israelites traced their descent. "The God of their fathers" identifies the speaker as the god those ancestors had worshiped, several centuries before Moses.

6The LORD also said to him, "Now put your hand inside your robe." He put his hand inside his robe, and when he took it out, his hand was covered with a skin disease, white as snow.

6And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.

NoteKJV "bosom" means the loose fold of a garment across the chest, used as a pocket. "Leprous" translates a Hebrew term covering a range of skin conditions; it is not the modern disease called leprosy (Hansen's disease). What mattered in Israel was that such a condition made a person ritually unclean and required them to live apart from others until it cleared.

7The LORD said, "Put your hand inside your robe again." He put his hand inside his robe again, and pulled it out, and it had gone back to being like the rest of his skin.

7And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

8"If they will not believe you and will not listen to what the first sign says, they will believe what the second sign says.

8And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

Note"The voice of the sign" is a Hebrew turn of phrase: a sign is treated as something that speaks, and listening to it means accepting what it shows.

9And if they will not believe even these two signs, and will not listen to you, then take some water from the river and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the dry ground."

9And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.

Note"The river" is the Nile. It was Egypt's only significant water supply and the basis of its farming, fishing and transport.

10Moses said to the LORD, "Please, Lord, I am not a good speaker. I never was before, and I have not become one since you began speaking to your servant. I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

10And Moses said unto the LORD, O my LORD, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

NoteThe Hebrew says literally "heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue." It is not clear whether Moses means a speech impediment, a lack of skill at public speaking, or rusty Egyptian after decades away; the wording leaves the question open.

11The LORD said to him, "Who made a person's mouth? Who makes someone unable to speak, or unable to hear, or able to see, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

11And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?

NoteKJV "dumb" means unable to speak. In 1611 it carried no suggestion of stupidity.

12So go now. I will be with your mouth and will teach you what to say."

12Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

Note"I will be with your mouth" is an idiom for helping someone with the act of speaking itself.

13But Moses said, "Please, Lord, send your message by the hand of whoever else you will send."

13And he said, O my LORD, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.

NoteLiterally "send by the hand of the one you will send." "By the hand of" is the ordinary Hebrew expression for sending a message through a messenger, so the whole sentence is an indirect, deferential way of saying "send somebody else."

14Then the LORD became angry with Moses, and he said, "Is there not your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is on his way out to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

14And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.

Note"The anger of the LORD was kindled" renders a Hebrew idiom in which anger burns or grows hot. Aaron is already Moses' brother, so calling him "the Levite" is unexpected; it names the family line the two share, descended from Levi, one of Jacob's twelve sons.

15You will speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what to do.

15And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.

16He will speak to the people for you. He will be like a mouth for you, and you will be to him in the place of God.

16And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.

Note"In the place of God" describes a chain of speaking rather than a rank: God gives Moses the words, Moses gives them to Aaron, and Aaron says them aloud to the people. The same relationship lies behind the word "prophet," which is applied to Aaron in this role in Exodus 7:1.

17And take this staff in your hand, so you can do the signs with it."

17And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.

18So Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, "Please let me go back to my relatives in Egypt and see whether they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."

18And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.

NoteJethro is a priest in Midian, the region east of the Gulf of Aqaba, where Moses had taken refuge and married Jethro's daughter. "Go in peace" is the standard Hebrew farewell, roughly "go, and may it be well with you." KJV "brethren" here means fellow Israelites.

19The LORD said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, because all the men who wanted to kill you are dead."

19And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life.

NoteThe men who wanted Moses dead are Pharaoh and his officials. Moses had killed an Egyptian overseer who was beating an Israelite, and fled Egypt to escape execution (Exodus 2:11–15).

20So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

20And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

NoteKJV "ass" means a donkey, the ordinary riding and pack animal of the region. The word carried no insulting sense.

21The LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, be sure to do before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your hand. But I will make his heart hard, and he will not let the people go.

21And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

Note"Harden his heart" translates a Hebrew expression meaning to make it strong, firm or heavy. In Hebrew the heart is the seat of thinking and deciding rather than of feeling, so the picture is of a mind fixed and immovable, not of cruelty. "Put in your hand" means placed in your power to carry out.

22Then you will say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my son, my firstborn son.

22And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:

NoteA firstborn son held a distinct position in a family: he received a double share of the inheritance, carried the father's name and authority after him, and was regarded as owed to God in a special way. Calling Israel God's firstborn assigns the nation that position among the peoples.

23I say to you, let my son go, so he can serve me. If you refuse to let him go, then I will kill your son, your firstborn son.'"

23And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.

NoteThe Hebrew verb translated "serve" covers both labor done for a master and worship offered to a god. It is the same word used for the Israelites' forced labor in Egypt, so the demand is worded as a transfer from one service to another.

24On the way, at the place where they stopped for the night, the LORD met him and tried to kill him.

24And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.

NoteKJV "inn" means simply a stopping place for the night on a journey, not a building with an innkeeper. The Hebrew of this verse uses bare pronouns and never says who is attacked, Moses or his son, and readers and translators have disagreed about it since ancient times.

25Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off her son's foreskin and touched it to his feet, and she said, "You are surely a husband of blood to me."

25Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.

NoteCircumcision, cutting away the foreskin of the penis, was the physical mark of the agreement between God and Abraham's descendants, normally carried out on a boy eight days after birth (Genesis 17). Flint was used instead of metal, an old practice kept on in the ritual. "Feet" is at times a polite Hebrew substitute for the genitals, and the text does not say whose feet are touched. "Husband of blood" (the word can also mean bridegroom) occurs nowhere else in the Bible, and its sense is disputed.

26So he let him alone. It was then that she said, "A husband of blood," because of the circumcision.

26So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

NoteHere too the Hebrew gives only pronouns: who lets go, and who is let go, is not stated.

27The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he went and met him at the mountain of God, and he kissed him.

27And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.

Note"The mountain of God" is Horeb, also called Sinai, the place where Moses had seen the burning bush in the previous chapter. A kiss was the normal greeting between male relatives and close friends.

28Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs he had ordered him to do.

28And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him.

29Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the Israelites together.

29And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel:

NoteThe elders were the senior heads of families and clans. They acted as the recognized leaders and spokesmen of the people, and among the enslaved Israelites there was no other body that could speak for the whole community.

30Aaron spoke all the words the LORD had spoken to Moses, and the signs were done where the people could see them.

30And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.

31And the people believed. When they heard that the LORD had come to the Israelites and had seen their suffering, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

31And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

NoteKJV "visited" translates a Hebrew word meaning to attend to someone, or take notice of them with the intention of acting. Bowing the head here means going down to the ground face first, the usual gesture of respect before a king or a god.