1Moses answered, “But they won't believe me or listen to what I say. They’ll insist, ‘Yahweh never appeared to you.’”
2Yahweh asked him, “What is that in your hand?” He replied, “A staff.”
3Yahweh said, “Throw it on the ground.” So Moses threw it on the ground, and it turned into a snake. Moses ran away from it.
4Yahweh said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and grab it by the tail.” He reached out his hand, took hold of it, and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
5“This is so they will believe that Yahweh, the God of their ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
6Yahweh also said to him, “Now put your hand inside your cloak.” He put his hand inside his cloak. When he pulled it out, his hand was diseased, as white as snow.
7Yahweh said, “Put your hand inside your cloak again.” He put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out, it was healthy again, just like the rest of his skin.
8“If they don’t believe you or listen to the first sign, they will believe the second sign.
9If they don't believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you must take some water from the river and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will turn into blood on the dry ground.”
10Moses said to Yahweh, “Oh Lord, I am not a good speaker. I haven't been in the past, and I’m not now, even after you’ve spoken to me. I speak slowly and with difficulty.”
11Yahweh said to him, “Who gave humans their mouths? Who makes someone unable to speak, or deaf, or able to see, or blind? Isn't it I, Yahweh?
12Now go, and I will help you speak and teach you what to say.”
13Moses said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else.”
14Yahweh became angry with Moses and said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he’s a good speaker. Look, he's actually coming out to meet you, and he’ll be glad to see you.
15You will speak to him and tell him what to say. I will help both of you speak, and I will teach you what to do.
16He will speak for you to the people. He will be like your spokesperson, and you will be like God to him.
17Take this staff in your hand, because with it you will perform miracles.”
18Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me go back to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still alive.” Jethro told Moses, “Go in peace.”
19Yahweh told Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, because all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.”
20So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and started back to Egypt. Moses carried God’s staff in his hand.
21Yahweh said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, make sure you perform all the miracles I have given you the power to do in front of Pharaoh. But I will make him stubborn, and he will not let the people go.
22Then you are to tell Pharaoh, ‘Yahweh says: Israel is my son, my firstborn.
23I told you to let my son go, so he could worship me. But you refused to let him go. So now I will kill your son, your firstborn.’ ”
24At a place where they stopped for the night, Yahweh confronted Moses and intended to kill him.
25Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched it to Moses’s feet. She said, “You are a blood relative to me because of this!”
26So Yahweh left Moses alone. At that time, she said, “You are a blood relative,” referring to the circumcision.
27Yahweh told Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So Aaron went and met Moses at God’s mountain and kissed him.
28Moses told Aaron everything Yahweh had commanded him to say and all about the miraculous signs Yahweh had instructed him to perform.
29Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the people of Israel.
30Aaron repeated everything Yahweh had told Moses, and Moses performed the miraculous signs in front of the people.
31The people believed. When they heard that Yahweh had heard about the Israelites and had seen their suffering, they bowed down and worshiped.