Moses Given Powerful Signs

4 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” ² The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, ^(A)“A staff.” ³ And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. ⁴ But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— ⁵ “that they may ^(B)believe that the Lord, ^(C)the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹ “When Pharaoh says to you, ^(A)‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’” ¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. ¹¹ Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the ^(B)magicians of Egypt, also ^(C)did the same by their secret arts. ¹² For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³ Still ^(D)Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, ^(E)as the Lord had said.

^19 (A)Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, ²⁰ coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night^[a] without one coming near the other all night.

²¹ Then Moses ^(B)stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by ^(C)a strong east wind all night and ^(D)made the sea dry land, and the waters were ^(E)divided. ²² And ^(F)the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being ^(G)a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. ²³ The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. ²⁴ And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, ²⁵ clogging^[b] their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the ^(H)Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”

²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(I)“Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” ^27 (J)So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea ^(K)returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord ^(L)threw^[c] the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. ²⁸ The ^(M)waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, ^(N)not one of them remained. ²⁹ But the ^(O)people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

³⁰ Thus the Lord ^(P)saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. ^31 (Q)Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they ^(R)believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.