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    Exodus · 31 verses

    Exodus 4

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    On the road back to Egypt, the LORD met Moses at a lodging place and was about to kill him. Zipporah, with a flint knife and a sentence about a “bridegroom of blood,” changed the scene at once; the chapter does not say why the LORD came for Moses, only that afterward He let him alone.

    The staff, the snake, and the reluctant spokesmanvv. 1–17

    Moses begins by worrying that nobody will believe him. The LORD asks what is in his hand: a staff, which becomes a snake when thrown down. Moses runs from the very sign meant to establish his credibility, then is told to pick it up by the tail—a wonderfully stern arrangement. A hand becomes leprous and is restored, water from the Nile is promised to become blood, and still Moses objects that he is slow of speech. The LORD answers that He gives people their mouths, but Moses makes one final request: “Please, Lord, send someone else.” Aaron is appointed as his spokesman, while Moses keeps the staff.

    The journey with the interruptionvv. 18–26

    Moses asks Jethro to let him return to his brothers in Egypt, takes his wife and sons, and sets out with the staff of God in his hand. The LORD tells him what to say to Pharaoh and declares Israel His firstborn son. Then, at a lodging place along the way, the story swerves sharply: the LORD meets Moses and is about to kill him. Zipporah cuts off her son’s foreskin and touches it to Moses’ feet, calling him a “bridegroom of blood.” The LORD lets him alone. The chapter explains her phrase, but not the danger that prompted it.

    Aaron arrives, and the people bowvv. 27–31

    Aaron meets Moses at the mountain of God and kisses him. Moses tells him everything, including the signs; together they assemble the elders of the Israelites. Aaron speaks the LORD’s words, Moses performs the signs, and the people believe. Hearing that the LORD had attended to the Israelites and seen their affliction, they bow down and worship.

    The text

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Exod 4:1Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

    2. Exod 4:2And the LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.

    3. Exod 4:3“Throw it on the ground,” said the LORD. So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it.

    4. Exod 4:4“Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail,” the LORD said to Moses, who reached out his hand and caught the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand.

    5. Exod 4:5“This is so 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.”

    6. Exod 4:6Furthermore, the LORD said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, white as snow.

    7. Exod 4:7“Put your hand back inside your cloak,” said the LORD. So Moses put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his skin.

    8. Exod 4:8And the LORD said, “If they refuse to believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe that of the second.

    9. Exod 4:9But if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. Then the water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.”

    10. Exod 4:10“Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”

    11. Exod 4:11And the LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Or who makes the mute or the deaf, the sighted or the blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

    12. Exod 4:12Now go! I will help you as you speak, and I will teach you what to say.”

    13. Exod 4:13But Moses replied, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”

    14. Exod 4:14Then the anger of the LORD burned against Moses, and He said, “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well, and he is now on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

    15. Exod 4:15You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will help both of you to speak, and I will teach you what to do.

    16. Exod 4:16He will speak to the people for you. He will be your spokesman, and it will be as if you were God to him.

    17. Exod 4:17But take this staff in your hand so you can perform signs with it.”

    18. Exod 4:18Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me return to my brothers in Egypt to see if they are still alive.” “Go in peace,” Jethro replied.

    19. Exod 4:19Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought to kill you are dead.”

    20. Exod 4:20So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

    21. Exod 4:21The LORD instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

    22. Exod 4:22Then tell Pharaoh that this is what the LORD says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son,

    23. Exod 4:23and I told you to let My son go so that he may worship Me. But since you have refused to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son!’”

    24. Exod 4:24Now at a lodging place along the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him.

    25. Exod 4:25But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched it to Moses’ feet. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said.

    26. Exod 4:26So the LORD let him alone. (When she said, “bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.)

    27. Exod 4:27Meanwhile, the LORD had said to Aaron, “Go and meet Moses in the wilderness.” So he went and met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.

    28. Exod 4:28And Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and all the signs He had commanded him to perform.

    29. Exod 4:29Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites,

    30. Exod 4:30and Aaron relayed everything the LORD had said to Moses. And Moses performed the signs before the people,

    31. Exod 4:31and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 238 passages were voted onto 30 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 12Jeremiah 1:9Then the LORD reached out His hand, touched my mouth, and said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
    • 12Luke 12:11–12When you are brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say.
    • 11Amos 3:6If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?
    • 11Psalms 94:9He who affixed the ear, can He not hear? He who formed the eye, can He not see?
    • 11Isaiah 6:7And with it he touched my mouth and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.”
    • 11Ezekiel 3:26–27I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, and you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house.
    • 11Psalms 146:8the LORD opens the eyes of the blind, the LORD lifts those who are weighed down, the LORD loves the righteous.
    • 11Psalms 51:15O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.
    • 12Matthew 10:19–20But when they hand you over, do not worry about how to respond or what to say. In that hour you will be given what to say.
    • 24Genesis 17:14But if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
    • 11Jeremiah 1:6“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I surely do not know how to speak, for I am only a child!”
    • 12Luke 21:14–15So make up your mind not to worry beforehand how to defend yourselves.
    • 11Genesis 18:14Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”
    • 11Ezekiel 33:22Now the evening before the fugitive arrived, the hand of the LORD was upon me, and He opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer mute.
    • 12Mark 13:11But when they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand what to say. Instead, speak whatever you are given at that time, for it will not be you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
    • 22Hosea 11:1When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.

    Onward

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