¹⁸ Then Moses went away and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please, let me go back so that I may return to my ^[a]relatives in Egypt, and see if they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” ¹⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life [for killing the Egyptian] are dead.”^{(A) 20} So Moses took his wife [Zipporah] and his sons [Gershom and Eliezer] and seated them on donkeys, and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the staff of God in his hand.

²¹ The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders (miracles) which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and make him stubborn so that he will not let the people go. ²² Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn. ²³ So I say to you, ‘Let My son go so that he may serve Me’; and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.”’”

²⁴ Now it happened at the lodging place, that the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him [making him deathly ill because he had not circumcised one of his sons].^{(B) 25 [b]}Then Zipporah took a flint knife and cut off the foreskin of her son and threw it at Moses’ feet, and said, “Indeed you are a husband of blood to me!” ²⁶ So He let Moses alone [to recover]. At that time Zipporah said, “You are a husband of blood”—because of the circumcision.

²⁷ The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God (Sinai) and kissed him. ²⁸ Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which He had sent him, and all the signs that He had commanded him to do.