Moses granted miraculous powers
1 Moses replied to Yahweh, “What if they will not believe me or listen to me? Maybe they will say: ‘That’s not true. Yahweh did not appear to you.”
2 Yahweh then asked him, “What is that in your right hand?” “A staff,” he replied.
3 God said, “Throw it to the ground.” He threw it and it became a serpent; and Moses drew back from it.
4 Yahweh said, “Take it by the tail.” Moses took it and it was again a staff in his hand.
5 Then Yahweh said, “With such signs they may believe that Yahweh, the God of your fathers, appeared to you.”
6 Again Yahweh said to him, “Put your hand on your chest.” He put his hand on his chest and when he took it away his hand was covered with leprosy, white as snow.
7 And God said, “Put your hand back on your chest.” So he put it back, and when he took it away again, his hand was healthy like the rest of his body.
8 Yahweh added, “If they don’t believe you and are not convinced by the first sign, they will believe you when they see the second.
9 But if these two signs are not enough to make them believe you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the ground; and the water from the river will turn into blood.”
Aaron, interpreter of Moses
10 Moses said to Yahweh, “But, my Lord, never have I been a fluent speaker either before or after you have spoken to me. I cannot find words to express what I want to say.”
11 Yahweh said to him, “Who gave man a mouth? Who makes him dumb or deaf, with sight or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh?
12 Go now. I will be on your lips and will inspire what you say.”
13 But Moses insisted, “My Lord, I pray you, why not send someone else?”
14 At this Yahweh became angry with Moses and said, “What of your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know he speaks well. Look! He is coming to meet you,
15 and he will be glad when he sees you. You will speak to him and tell him what I have told you to say. And when you tell him, or when he speaks, I will be with you and teach you what you have to say.
16 Aaron will speak for you as a prophet speaks for his god.
17 And with this staff in your hand you will work miraculous signs.”
Moses returns to Egypt
18 Then Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, “I am going back to my brothers in Egypt to see if they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace!”
19 Yahweh said to Moses in the land of Midian, “Go back to Egypt for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.”
20 Moses took with him his wife and his sons. He put them on a donkey and set off for Egypt, holding in his hand the staff of God.
21 Yahweh said to Moses, “You are returning to Egypt and you will perform all the miraculous signs that I have empowered you to do, in the presence of Pharaoh. I will, however, make him stubborn so that he will not let the peo ple go.
22 You shall then say to Pharaoh: ‘This is Yah weh’s message: Israel is my firstborn son,
23 and I said to you: Let my son go that he may worship me. But you have refused to let him go and, be cause of this, I will take the life of your firstborn son.”
24 At a lodging place on the way, the Angel of Yahweh approached Moses and tried to kill him.
25 But Zipporah took a flint stone and cut her son’s fore skin and, with it, she touched the feet of Moses saying, “You are now my husband by blood!”
26 And the Angel left him. Zipporah said ‘husband by blood’ because of the circumcision.
Moses meets Aaron
27 Yahweh said to Aaron, “Go into the desert and meet your brother, Moses.” So Aaron went and met him at the Moun tain of God and kissed him.
28 Moses related to Aaron all that Yahweh had said to him and all the signs he had commanded him to perform.
29 Moses and Aaron as sembled all the elders of the Isra elites
30 and Aaron told them everything that Yahweh had said to Moses. He also performed all the signs before the people and they believed him.
31 When they heard that Yah weh had visited the people of Is rael and had seen their suffering, they bowed to the ground and worshiped him.
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Comments Exodus, Chapter 4
• 4.1 They will not believe me. It is always difficult for the marginalized to unite and put their confidence in the one who can uplift them. But it will cost Israel even more to follow a path to liberation that is slow and so opposed to human wisdom. Moses usually does not care what people think, but acts with the authority of God. This is why he receives power to perform miracles which prove his authority.
All this story is adapted to the world in which Moses lived. We find here the type of portents that were attributed to Egyptian sorcerers.
• 10. Aaron will speak for you. Perhaps Moses wants to flee from the call of God; perhaps he feels inferior because he does not have the human qualities that seem essential in a leader. God who calls will provide the necessary means.
To understand the role of Aaron in these events, we must remember that the Jewish priests were called “sons of Aaron”: they were considered as his descendants. That is why Aaron who was probably Moses’ brother in a vague way just as “Miriam, sister of Aaron,” became in time his blood brother. We find him sharing the authority of Moses, and interpreting his words: in reality all that points out to the priests of Israel and establishes their authority.
• 18. Moses appears to be gravely sick: his wife thinks it is because he has not been circumcised. Therefore, according to the thinking of that time, she circumcises his son instead of him.
It may be noted that 4:19 has been taken textually in Mt 2:20: the evangelist intends to show that Jesus is the new Moses.