Exodus Chapter 4
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Moses is empowered to confirm his mission with miracles: his brother Aaron is appointed to assist him.
4:1. Moses answered, and said: They will not believe me, nor hear my voice, but they will say: The Lord hath not appeared to thee.
4:2. Then he said to him: What is that thou holdest in thy hand? He answered: A rod.
4:3. And the Lord said: Cast it down upon the ground. He cast it down, and it was turned into a serpent, so that Moses fled from it.
4:4. And the Lord said: Put out thy hand, and take it by the tail. He put forth his hand, and took hold of it, and it was turned into a rod.
4:5. That they may believe, saith he, that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to thee.
4:6. And the Lord said again: Put thy hand into thy bosom. And when he had put it into his bosom, he brought it forth leprous as snow.
4:7. And he said: Put back thy hand into thy bosom. He put it back, and brought it out again, and it was like the other flesh.
4:8. If they will not believe thee, saith he, nor hear the voice of the former sign, they will believe the word of the latter sign.
4:9. But if they will not even believe these two signs, nor hear thy voice: take of the river water, and pour it out upon the dry land, and whatsoever thou drawest out of the river, shall be turned into blood.
4:10. Moses said: I beseech thee, Lord, I am not eloquent from yesterday and the day before; and since thou hast spoken to thy servant, I have more impediment and slowness of tongue.
4:11. The Lord said to him: Who made man’s mouth? or who made the dumb and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? did not I?
4:12. Go therefore, and I will be in thy mouth; and I will teach thee what thou shalt speak.
4:13. But he said: I beseech thee, Lord, send whom thou wilt send.
4:14. The Lord being angry at Moses, said: Aaron the Levite is thy brother, I know that he is eloquent: behold he cometh forth to meet thee, and seeing thee, shall be glad at heart.
4:15. Speak to him, and put my words in his mouth: and I will be in thy mouth, and in his mouth, and will shew you what you must do.
4:16. He shall speak in thy stead to the people, and shall be thy mouth: but thou shalt be to him in those things that pertain to God.
4:17. And take this rod in thy hand, wherewith thou shalt do the signs.
4:18. Moses went his way, and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said to him; I will go and return to my brethren into Egypt, that I may see if they be yet alive. And Jethro said to him: Go in peace.
4:19. And the Lord said to Moses, in Madian: Go, and return into Egypt; for they are all dead that sought thy life.
4:20. Moses therefore took his wife, and his sons, and set them upon an ass; and returned into Egypt, carrying the rod of God in his hand.
4:21. And the Lord said to him as he was returning into Egypt: See that thou do all the wonders before Pharao, which I have put in thy hand: I shall harden his heart, and he will not let the people go.
I shall harden, etc.... Not by being the efficient cause of his sin; but by withdrawing from him, for his just punishment, the dew of grace that might have softened his heart; and so suffering him to grow harder and harder.
4:22. And thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Israel is my son, my firstborn.
4:23. I have said to thee: Let my son go, that he may serve me, and thou wouldst not let him go: behold I will kill thy son, thy firstborn.
4:24. And when he was in his journey, in the inn, the Lord met him, and would have killed him.
The Lord met him, and would have killed him.... This was an angel representing the Lord, who treated Moses in this manner, for having neglected the circumcision of his younger son; which his wife understanding, circumcised her child upon the spot, upon which the angel let Moses go.
4:25. Immediately Sephora took a very sharp stone, and circumcised the foreskin of her son, and touched his feet, and said: A bloody spouse art thou to me.
4:26. And he let him go after she had said: A bloody spouse art thou to me, because of the circumcision.
4:27. And the Lord said to Aaron: Go into the desert to meet Moses. And he went forth to meet him in the mountain of God, and kissed him.
4:28. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord, by which he had sent him, and the signs that he had commanded.
4:29. And they came together, and they assembled all the ancients of the children of Israel.
4:30. And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had said to Moses: and he wrought the signs before the people.
4:31. And the people believed. And they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction: and falling down they adored.