Signs for Moses

4 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen^(A) to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

² Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,”^(B) he replied.

³ The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake,^(C) and he ran from it. ⁴ Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. ⁵ “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe^(D) 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 Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous^[a]—it had become as white as snow.^(E)

⁷ “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored,^(F) like the rest of his flesh.

⁸ Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe^(G) you or pay attention to the first sign,^(H) they may believe the second. ⁹ But if they do not believe 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 river will become blood^(I) on the ground.”

²⁷ The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain^(A) of God and kissed^(B) him. ²⁸ Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.

²⁹ Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders^(C) of the Israelites, ³⁰ and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs^(D) before the people, ³¹ and they believed.^(E) And when they heard that the Lord was concerned^(F) about them and had seen their misery,^(G) they bowed down and worshiped.^(H)

Aaron’s Staff Becomes a Snake

⁸ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹ “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,^(A)’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”^(B)

¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. ¹¹ Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers,^(C) and the Egyptian magicians^(D) also did the same things by their secret arts:^{(E) 12} Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³ Yet Pharaoh’s heart^(F) became hard and he would not listen^(G) to them, just as the Lord had said.