Exodus 4

All 31 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

Read Exodus 4 in the Bible reader, with audio →

1. 1Moses answered, "But look, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, because they will say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.'"
2. 2The LORD asked him, "What's that in your hand?" Moses said, "A rod."
3. 3"Throw it on the ground," God said. So Moses threw it down, and it turned into a snake. Moses ran from it.
4. 4Then the LORD told Moses, "Reach out and grab it by the tail." Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it became a rod again in his hand.
5. 5This is so they'll 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. 6Then the LORD said, "Now put your hand inside your cloak." Moses slipped his hand inside his cloak, and when he pulled it out, his hand was covered with leprosy, white as snow.
7. 7And he said, "Put your hand inside your garment again." And he put his hand inside his garment again, and pulled it out of his garment, and look, it was again like his other flesh.
8. 8If they do not believe you or listen to the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the second sign.
9. 9But if they still don't believe even after both signs and won't listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you pour out will turn to blood right there on the ground."
10. 10And Moses said to the LORD, "O my LORD, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and have a slow tongue."
11. 11The LORD replied, "Who made the human mouth? Who makes a person mute or deaf, able to see or blind? Isn't it I, the LORD?
12. 12Now go. I will be with you when you speak, and I will teach you what to say."
13. 13But Moses said, "O my LORD, please send someone you choose."
14. 14At that, the LORD's anger burned against Moses. He said, "What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. In fact, he's already on his way to meet you, and he'll be overjoyed when he sees you.
15. 15You will speak to him and put words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you both what to do.
16. 16He will be your spokesman to the people. He'll serve as your mouth, and you will be like God to him.
17. 17Take this rod with you — you'll use it to perform the signs."
18. 18Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, "Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt and see whether they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."
19. 19While still in Midian, the LORD told Moses, "Go back to Egypt. Everyone who wanted to kill you is dead."
20. 20So Moses put his wife and sons on a donkey and headed back to Egypt. He carried the rod of God in his hand.
21. 21The LORD said to 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 harden his heart, and he won't let the people go.
22. 22Then tell Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my son, my firstborn.
23. 23And I say to you, 'Let my son go, that he may serve me; and if you refuse to let him go, look, I will kill your son, even your firstborn.'
24. 24It happened along the way, in the inn, that the LORD met him and sought to kill him.
25. 25Zipporah took a sharp stone, cut off her son's foreskin, and threw it at his feet, saying, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!"
26. 26So the LORD let him go. She had called him a "bridegroom of blood" because of the circumcision.
27. 27Meanwhile, the LORD told Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." So Aaron went and met him at the mountain of God, and kissed him.
28. 28Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had said when he sent him, and all the signs he had commanded him to perform.
29. 29Then Moses and Aaron went to Egypt and gathered all the elders of Israel together.
30. 30Aaron repeated everything the LORD had told Moses, and he performed the signs in front of the people.
31. 31The people believed. When they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel and had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.