| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 1But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The LORD never appeared to you’?” | 1Moses answered again, "And if they do not believe me or pay attention to me, but say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you'?" |
| 2Then the LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied. | 2The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff." |
| 3“Throw it down on the ground,” the LORD told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back. | 3The LORD said, "Throw it to the ground." So he threw it to the ground, and it became a snake, and Moses ran from it. |
| 4Then the LORD told him, “Reach out and grab its tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand. | 4But the LORD said to Moses, "Put out your hand and grab it by the tail"--so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand-- |
| 5“Perform this sign,” the LORD told him. “Then they will believe that the LORD, the God of their ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—really has appeared to you.” | 5"that they may 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." |
| 6Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out again, his hand was white as snow with a severe skin disease. | 6The LORD also said to him, "Put your hand into your robe." So he put his hand into his robe, and when he brought it out--there was his hand, leprous like snow! |
| 7“Now put your hand back into your cloak,” the LORD said. So Moses put his hand back in, and when he took it out again, it was as healthy as the rest of his body. | 7He said, "Put your hand back into your robe." So he put his hand back into his robe, and when he brought it out from his robe--there it was, restored like the rest of his skin! |
| 8The LORD said to Moses, “If they do not believe you and are not convinced by the first miraculous sign, they will be convinced by the second sign. | 8"If they do not believe you or pay attention to the former sign, then they may believe the latter sign. |
| 9And if they don’t believe you or listen to you even after these two signs, then take some water from the Nile River and pour it out on the dry ground. When you do, the water from the Nile will turn to blood on the ground.” | 9And if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to you, then take some water from the Nile and pour it out on the dry ground. The water you take out of the Nile will become blood on the dry ground." |
| 10But Moses pleaded with the LORD, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” | 10Then Moses said to the LORD, "O my Lord, I am not an eloquent man, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." |
| 11Then the LORD asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the LORD? | 11The LORD said to him, "Who gave a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? |
| 12Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.” | 12So now go, and I will be with your mouth and will teach you what you must say." |
| 13But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.” | 13But Moses said, "O my Lord, please send anyone else whom you wish to send!" |
| 14Then the LORD became angry with Moses. “All right,” he said. “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look! He is on his way to meet you now. He will be delighted to see you. | 14Then the LORD became angry with Moses, and he said, "What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak very well. Moreover, he is coming to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart. |
| 15Talk to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do. | 15"So you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And as for me, I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what you must do. |
| 16Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say. | 16He will speak for you to the people, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were his God. |
| 17And take your shepherd’s staff with you, and use it to perform the miraculous signs I have shown you.” Moses Returns to Egypt | 17You will also take in your hand this staff, with which you will do the signs." |
| 18So Moses went back home to Jethro, his father-in-law. “Please let me return to my relatives in Egypt,” Moses said. “I don’t even know if they are still alive.” “Go in peace,” Jethro replied. | 18So Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, "Let me go, so that I may return to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace." |
| 19Before Moses left Midian, the LORD said to him, “Return to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you have died.” | 19The LORD said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, because all the men who were seeking your life are dead." |
| 20So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to the land of Egypt. In his hand he carried the staff of God. | 20Then Moses took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey and headed back to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand. |
| 21And the LORD told Moses, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go. | 21The LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put under your control. But I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go. |
| 22Then you will tell him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son. | 22You must say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD, "Israel is my son, my firstborn, |
| 23I commanded you, “Let my son go, so he can worship me.” But since you have refused, I will now kill your firstborn son!’” | 23and I said to you, 'Let my son go that he may serve me,' but since you have refused to let him go, I will surely kill your son, your firstborn!"'" |
| 24On the way to Egypt, at a place where Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the LORD confronted him and was about to kill him. | 24Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, the LORD met Moses and sought to kill him. |
| 25But Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She touched his feet with the foreskin and said, “Now you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” | 25But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses' feet, and said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me." |
| 26(When she said “a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.) After that, the LORD left him alone. | 26So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said, "A bridegroom of blood," referring to the circumcision.) |
| 27Now the LORD had said to Aaron, “Go out into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So Aaron went and met Moses at the mountain of God, and he embraced him. | 27The LORD said to Aaron, "Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and greeted him with a kiss. |
| 28Moses then told Aaron everything the LORD had commanded him to say. And he told him about the miraculous signs the LORD had commanded him to perform. | 28Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him and all the signs that he had commanded him. |
| 29Then Moses and Aaron returned to Egypt and called all the elders of Israel together. | 29Then Moses and Aaron went and brought together all the Israelite elders. |
| 30Aaron told them everything the LORD had told Moses, and Moses performed the miraculous signs as they watched. | 30Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people, |
| 31Then the people of Israel were convinced that the LORD had sent Moses and Aaron. When they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. | 31and the people believed. When they heard that the LORD had attended to the Israelites and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed down close to the ground. |
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