¹⁷ Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign^(A) that it is really you talking to me.

¹¹ “Ask the Lord your God for a sign,^(A) whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.^(B)”

¹³ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways^(A) so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”^(B)

⁷ “‘This is the Lord’s sign^(A) to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: ⁸ I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.^(B)

⁸ Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?”

⁹ Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign^(A) to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?”

¹⁰ “It is a simple^(B) matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.”

¹¹ Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back^(C) the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

³⁶ Gideon said to God, “If you will save^(A) Israel by my hand as you have promised— ³⁷ look, I will place a wool fleece^(B) on the threshing floor.^(C) If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know^(D) that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” ³⁸ And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.

³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request.^(E) Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” ⁴⁰ That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.^(F)

¹⁶ How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?^(A) What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”^(B)

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.”