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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Exodus 4 NLT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/exodus/4.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/exodus/4-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NLT</a> > Exodus 4</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../exodus/3.htm" title="Exodus 3">◄</a> Exodus 4 <a href="../exodus/5.htm" title="Exodus 5">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Living Translation</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/nlt/esv/exodus/4.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="hdg">Signs of the LORD’s Power</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The LORD never appeared to you’?”</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>Then the LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?”</p><p class="reg">“A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>“Throw it down on the ground,” the LORD told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>Then the LORD told him, “Reach out and grab its tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>“Perform this sign,” the LORD told him. “Then they will believe that the LORD, the God of their ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—really has appeared to you.”</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out again, his hand was white as snow with a severe skin disease.<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">a</span></a> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>“Now put your hand back into your cloak,” the LORD said. So Moses put his hand back in, and when he took it out again, it was as healthy as the rest of his body.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>The LORD said to Moses, “If they do not believe you and are not convinced by the first miraculous sign, they will be convinced by the second sign. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>And if they don’t believe you or listen to you even after these two signs, then take some water from the Nile River and pour it out on the dry ground. When you do, the water from the Nile will turn to blood on the ground.”</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>But Moses pleaded with the LORD, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.”</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>Then the LORD asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the LORD? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.”</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>Then the LORD became angry with Moses. “All right,” he said. “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look! He is on his way to meet you now. He will be delighted to see you. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>Talk to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>And take your shepherd’s staff with you, and use it to perform the miraculous signs I have shown you.”</p><p class="hdg">Moses Returns to Egypt</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>So Moses went back home to Jethro, his father-in-law. “Please let me return to my relatives in Egypt,” Moses said. “I don’t even know if they are still alive.”</p><p class="reg">“Go in peace,” Jethro replied.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>Before Moses left Midian, the LORD said to him, “Return to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you have died.”</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to the land of Egypt. In his hand he carried the staff of God.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>And the LORD told Moses, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>Then you will tell him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>I commanded you, “Let my son go, so he can worship me.” But since you have refused, I will now kill your firstborn son!’”</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>On the way to Egypt, at a place where Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the LORD confronted him and was about to kill him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>But Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She touched his feet<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">b</span></a> with the foreskin and said, “Now you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>(When she said “a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.) After that, the LORD left him alone.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>Now the LORD had said to Aaron, “Go out into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So Aaron went and met Moses at the mountain of God, and he embraced him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>Moses then told Aaron everything the LORD had commanded him to say. And he told him about the miraculous signs the LORD had commanded him to perform.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>Then Moses and Aaron returned to Egypt and called all the elders of Israel together. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>Aaron told them everything the LORD had told Moses, and Moses performed the miraculous signs as they watched. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/4-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>Then the people of Israel were convinced that the LORD had sent Moses and Aaron. When they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="fn">a</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">4:6 </span><span class="ft">Or </span><span class="it">with leprosy.</span><span class="ft"> The Hebrew word used here can describe various skin diseases.</span><br><span class="fn">b</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">4:25 </span><span class="ft">The Hebrew word for “feet” may refer here to the male sex organ.</span><br></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><em>Holy Bible</em>, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of <a href="http://www.tyndale.com">Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.</a>, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. 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