Exodus 4 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Moses pushed back and said, "But what if they don't believe me or listen to what I'm saying? What if they say, 'Yahweh never appeared to you'?"

Yahweh asked him, "What's that in your hand?" Moses said, "A staff."

Yahweh said, "Throw it on the ground." So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake. Moses ran from it.

Yahweh told Moses, "Reach out and grab it by the tail." So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it became a staff in his hand again.

"This is so they'll believe that Yahweh, the God of their ancestors — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob — really did appear to you."

Then Yahweh said, "Now put your hand inside your cloak." Moses put his hand inside his cloak, and when he pulled it out, his hand was covered with a skin disease — white as snow.

Then Yahweh said, "Put your hand back inside your cloak." Moses put his hand back inside, and when he pulled it out, it was restored — healthy like the rest of his skin.

"If they don't believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second sign."

"And if they don't believe even these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the Nile will turn to blood on the ground."

Moses said to Yahweh, "Please, my Lord — I've never been good with words. Not in the past, and not even now that you've been talking to me. I'm slow to speak and slow to get my words out."

Yahweh said to him, "Who gave humans their mouths? Who makes someone unable to speak, or unable to hear, or able to see, or unable to see? Isn't it me — Yahweh?"

"Now go. I myself will be with your mouth and teach you what to say."

But Moses said, "Please, my Lord — just send someone else. Anyone."

Then Yahweh's anger burned against Moses. He said, "What about your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know he's a good speaker. And look — he's already on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he'll be thrilled."

"You'll speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I'll be with both of you as you speak, and I'll teach both of you what to do."

"He'll speak to the people for you — he'll be your mouth, and you'll be like God to him."

"And take this staff with you — you'll use it to perform the signs."

Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, "Let me go back to my people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive." Jethro told Moses, "Go in peace."

Yahweh had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt. Everyone who was trying to kill you is dead."

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

Yahweh told Moses, "When you get back to Egypt, make sure you perform all the wonders I've given you the power to do in front of Pharaoh. But I will make his heart stubborn, and he won't let the people go."

"Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what Yahweh says: Israel is my firstborn son.'"

"And I told you: Let my son go so he can worship me. But you refused to let him go. So now I'm going to kill your firstborn son."

Along the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, Yahweh confronted Moses and was about to kill him.

Zipporah grabbed a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin, and touched it to Moses' feet. She said, "You are a bridegroom of blood to me."

So Yahweh let Moses alone. It was then that she said "bridegroom of blood" — referring to the circumcision.

Yahweh said to Aaron, "Go out into the wilderness to meet Moses." So Aaron went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

Moses told Aaron everything — all the words Yahweh had sent him to say and all the signs he had commanded him to perform.

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

Aaron repeated everything Yahweh had said to Moses, and he performed the signs in front of the people.

And the people believed. When they heard that Yahweh had paid attention to the Israelites and that he had seen their suffering, they knelt down and pressed their faces to the ground.