Exodus 4:18-28

Christian Standard Bible

Moses’s Return to Egypt

¹⁸ Then Moses went back to his father-in-law, Jethro, and said to him, “Please let me return to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still living.”

Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

¹⁹ Now in Midian the Lord told Moses, “Return to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.”^{(A) 20} So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took God’s staff^(B) in his hand.

²¹ The Lord instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, make sure you do before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart^[a](C) so that he won’t let the people go. ²² And you will say to Pharaoh: This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son.^{(D) 23} I told you: Let my son go so that he may worship me, but you refused to let him go. Look, I am about to kill your firstborn son!” ^(E)

²⁴ On the trip, at an overnight campsite, it happened that the Lord confronted him and intended to put him to death. ²⁵ So Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son’s foreskin, threw it at Moses’s feet, and said, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me!” ^{(F) 26} So he let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.

Reunion of Moses and Aaron

²⁷ Now the Lord had said to Aaron, “Go and meet Moses in the wilderness.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.^{(G) 28} Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and about all the signs he had commanded him to do.