Moses Returns to Egypt

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." ¹⁹While still in Midian, the LORD told Moses, "Go back to Egypt. Everyone who wanted to kill you is dead." ²⁰So Moses put his wife and sons on a donkey and headed back to Egypt. He carried the rod of God in his hand. 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. ²²Then tell Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my son, my firstborn. 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.' ²⁴It happened along the way, in the inn, that the LORD met him and sought to kill him. 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!" ²⁶So the LORD let him go. She had called him a "bridegroom of blood" because of the circumcision. 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. ²⁸Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had said when he sent him, and all the signs he had commanded him to perform. ²⁹Then Moses and Aaron went to Egypt and gathered all the elders of Israel together. ³⁰Aaron repeated everything the LORD had told Moses, and he performed the signs in front of the people. 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.