41 And Moses, answering, said, It is certain that they will not have faith in me or give ear to my voice; for they will say, You have not seen the Lord. 2 And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod. 3 And he said, Put it down on the earth. And he put it down on the earth and it became a snake; and Moses went running from it. 4 And the Lord said to Moses, Put out your hand and take it by the tail: (and he put out his hand and took a grip of it and it became a rod in his hand:) 5 So that they may be certain that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by you. 6 Then the Lord said to him again, Put your hand inside your clothing. And he put his hand inside his robe: and when he took it out it was like the hand of a leper, as white as snow. 7 And he said, Put your hand inside your robe again. (And he put his hand into his robe again, and when he took it out he saw that it had become like his other flesh.) 8 And if they do not have faith in you or give ear to the voice of the first sign, they will have faith in the second sign. 9 And if they have no faith even in these two signs and will not give ear to your voice, then you are to take the water of the Nile and put it on the dry land: and the water you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.

10 And Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not a man of words; I have never been so, and am not now, even after what you have said to your servant: for talking is hard for me, and I am slow of tongue. 11 And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? who takes away a man's voice or hearing, or makes him seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 So go now, and I will be with your mouth, teaching you what to say. 13 And he said, O Lord, send, if you will, by the hand of anyone whom it seems good to you to send. 14 And the Lord was angry with Moses, and said, Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? To my knowledge he is good at talking. And now he is coming out to you: and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart. 15 Let him give ear to your voice, and you will put my words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his, teaching you what you have to do. 16 And he will do the talking for you to the people: he will be to you as a mouth and you will be to him as God. 17 And take in your hand this rod with which you will do the signs.

Moses Returns to Egypt

18 And Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go back now to my relations in Egypt and see if they are still living. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. 19 And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men are dead who were attempting to take your life. 20 And Moses took his wife and his sons and put them on an ass and went back to the land of Egypt: and he took the rod of God in his hand. 21 And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have given you power to do: but I will make his heart hard and he will not let the people go. 22 And you are to say to Pharaoh, The Lord says, Israel is the first of my sons: 23 And I said to you, Let my son go, so that he may give me worship; and you did not let him go: so now I will put the first of your sons to death.

24 Now on the journey, at the night's resting-place, the Lord came in his way and would have put him to death. 25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cutting off the skin of her son's private parts, and touching his feet with it, she said, Truly you are a husband of blood to me. 26 So he let him go. Then she said, You are a husband of blood because of the circumcision. 27 And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the waste land and you will see Moses. So he went and came across Moses at the mountain of God, and gave him a kiss. 28 And Moses gave Aaron an account of all the words of the Lord which he had sent him to say, and of all the signs which he had given him orders to do. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and got together all the chiefs of the children of Israel: 30 And Aaron said to them all the words the Lord had said to Moses, and did the signs before all the people. 31 And the people had faith in them; and hearing that the Lord had taken up the cause of the children of Israel and had seen their troubles, with bent heads they gave him worship.

The Call of Moses

31 Now Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he took the flock to the back of the waste land and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord was seen by him in a flame of fire coming out of a thorn-tree: and he saw that the tree was on fire, but it was not burned up. 3 And Moses said, I will go and see this strange thing, why the tree is not burned up, 4 And when the Lord saw him turning to one side to see, God said his name out of the tree, crying, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. 5 And he said, Do not come near: take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy. 6 And he said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses kept his face covered for fear of looking on God.

7 And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows; 8 And I have come down to take them out of the hands of the Egyptians, guiding them out of that land into a good land and wide, into a land flowing with milk and honey; into the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 9 For now, truly, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the cruel behaviour of the Egyptians to them. 10 Come, then, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may take my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

11 And Moses said to God, Who am I to go to Pharaoh and take the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12 And he said, Truly I will be with you; and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have taken the children of Israel out of Egypt, you will give worship to God on this mountain. 13 And Moses said to God, When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you: and they say to me, What is his name? what am I to say to them? 14 And God said to him, I AM WHAT I AM: and he said, Say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. 15 And God went on to say to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and this is my sign to all generations.

16 Go and get together the chiefs of the children of Israel, and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by me, and has said, Truly I have taken up your cause, because of what is done to you in Egypt; 17 And I have said, I will take you up out of the sorrows of Egypt into the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, into a land flowing with milk and honey. 18 And they will give ear to your voice: and you, with the chiefs of Israel, will go to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God. 19 And I am certain that the king of Egypt will not let you go without being forced. 20 But I will put out my hand and overcome Egypt with all the wonders which I will do among them: and after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that when you go out you will go out with your hands full. 22 For every woman will get from her neighbour and from the woman living in her house, ornaments of silver and gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and your daughters; you will take the best of their goods from the Egyptians.