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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=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>Exodus 4 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</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><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="/bmcc/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/catholic">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NRSVCE</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 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><div class="text-html"> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Moses’ Miraculous Power</span></h3><p class="chapter-1"><span class="text"><span class="versenum">1</span>Then Moses answered, “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> did not appear to you.’” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">2</span>The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">3</span>And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw the staff on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses drew back from it. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">4</span>Then the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to Moses, “Reach out your hand, and seize it by the tail”—so he reached out his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his hand— </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">5</span>“so that they may believe that the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">6</span>Again, the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” He put his hand into his cloak; and when he took it out, his hand was leprous,<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-1608a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote a">a</a>]</span> as white as snow. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">7</span>Then God said, “Put your hand back into your cloak”—so he put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his body— </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">8</span>“If they will not believe you or heed the first sign, they may believe the second sign. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">9</span>If they will not believe even these two signs or heed you, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">10</span>But Moses said to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">11</span>Then the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>? </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">12</span>Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">13</span>But he said, “O my Lord, please send someone else.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">14</span>Then the anger of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> was kindled against Moses and he said, “What of your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">15</span>You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">16</span>He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">17</span>Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.”</span></p> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Moses Returns to Egypt</span></h3><p><span class="text"><span class="versenum">18</span>Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me go back to my kindred in Egypt and see whether they are still living.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">19</span>The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt; for all those who were seeking your life are dead.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">20</span>So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt; and Moses carried the staff of God in his hand.</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">21</span>And the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">22</span>Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>: Israel is my firstborn son. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">23</span>I said to you, “Let my son go that he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.’”</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">24</span>On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> met him and tried to kill him. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">25</span>But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-1627b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote b">b</a>]</span> feet with it, and said, “Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">26</span>So he let him alone. It was then she said, “A bridegroom of blood by circumcision.”</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">27</span>The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went; and he met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">28</span>Moses told Aaron all the words of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> with which he had sent him, and all the signs with which he had charged him. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">29</span>Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">30</span>Aaron spoke all the words that the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> had spoken to Moses, and performed the signs in the sight of the people. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">31</span>The people believed; and when they heard that the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> had given heed to the Israelites and that he had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.</span></p> <A name="fen"></a><div class="footnotes"><h4>Footnotes</h4><ol><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Exodus 4:6">Exodus 4:6</a> <span class='footnote-text'>A term for several skin diseases; precise meaning uncertain</span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Exodus 4:25">Exodus 4:25</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>his</i></span></li></ol></div> </div></div></div></div></div> </div> </div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. 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