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Êxodo 4

ARC · Chapter 4/40

1Então respondeu Moysés, e disse: Mas eis que me não crerão, nem ouvirão a minha voz, porque dirão: O Senhor não te appareceu.

2E o Senhor disse-lhe: Que é isso na tua mão? E elle disse: Uma vara.

3E elle disse: Lança-a na terra. Elle a lançou na terra, e tornou-se em cobra: e Moysés fugia d'ella.

4Então disse o Senhor a Moysés: Estende a tua mão, e pega-lhe pela cauda, E estendeu sua mão, e pegou-lhe pela cauda, e tornou-se em vara na sua mão

5Para que creiam que te appareceu o Senhor, Deus de seus paes, o Deus de Abrahão, o Deus de Isaac e o Deus de Jacob.

6E disse-lhe mais o Senhor: Mette agora a tua mão no teu seio. E, tirando-a, eis que a sua mão estava leprosa, branca como a neve.

7E disse: Torna a metter a tua mão no teu seio. E tornou a metter sua mão no seu seio: depois tirou-a do seu seio, e eis que se tornara como a sua outra carne.

8E acontecerá que, se elles te não crerem, nem ouvirem a voz do primeiro signal, crerão a voz do derradeiro signal;

9E se acontecer que ainda não creiam a estes dois signaes, nem ouvirem a tua voz, tomarás das aguas do rio, e as derramarás na terra secca: e as aguas, que tomarás do rio, tornar-se-hão em sangue sobre a terra secca.

10Então disse Moysés ao Senhor: Ah Senhor! eu não sou homem que bem falla, nem de hontem nem de antehontem, nem ainda desde que tens fallado ao teu servo; porque sou pesado de bocca, e pesado de lingua.

11E disse-lhe o Senhor: Quem fez a bocca do homem? ou quem fez o mudo, ou o surdo, ou o que vê, ou o cego? não sou eu, o Senhor?

12Vae pois agora, e eu serei com a tua bocca, e te ensinarei o que has de fallar.

13Elle porém disse: Ah Senhor! envia pela mão d'aquelle a quem tu has de enviar.

14Então se accendeu a ira do Senhor contra Moysés, e disse: Não é Aarão, o levita, teu irmão? eu sei que elle fallará muito bem: e eis que elle tambem sae ao teu encontro; e, vendo-te, se alegrará em seu coração

15E tu lhe fallarás, e porás as palavras na sua bocca: e eu serei com a tua bocca, e com a sua bocca, ensinando-vos o que haveis de fazer.

16E elle fallará por ti ao povo: e aconlecerá que elle te será por bocca, e tu lhe serás por Deus.

17Toma pois esta vara na tua mão, com que farás os signaes.

18Então foi-se Moysés, e voltou para Jethro seu sogro, e disse-lhe; Eu irei agora, e tornarei a meus irmãos, que estão no Egypto, para ver se ainda vivem. Disse pois Jethro a Moysés: Vae em paz.

19Disse tambem o Senhor a Moysés em Midian: Vae, volta para o Egypto; porque todos os que buscavam a tua alma morreram.

20Tomou pois Moysés sua mulher e seus filhos, e os levou sobre um jumento, e tornou-se á terra do Egypto; e Moysés tomou a vara de Deus na sua mão.

21E disse o Senhor a Moysés: Quando fores tornado ao Egypto, attenta que faças diante de Pharaó todas as maravi-*lhas que tenho posto na tua mão: mas eu endurecerei o seu coração, para que não deixe ir o povo

22Então dirás a Pharaó: Assim diz o Senhor: Israel é meu filho, meu primogenito.

23E eu te tenho dito: Deixa ir o meu filho, para que me sirva; mas tu recusaste deixal-o ir: eis que eu matarei a teu filho, o teu primogenito.

24E aconteceu no caminho, n'uma estalagem, que o Senhor o encontrou, e o quiz matar.

25Então Zippora tomou uma pedra aguda, e circumcidou o prepucio de seu filho, e o lançou a seus pés, e disse: Certamente me és um esposo sanguinario.

26E desviou-se d'elle. Então ella disse: Esposo sanguinario, por causa da circumcisão.

27Disse tambem o Senhor a Aarão: Vae ao encontro de Moysés ao deserto. E elle foi, encontrou-o no monte de Deus, e beijou-o.

28E denunciou Moysés a Aarão todas as palavras do Senhor, que o enviara, e todos os signaes que lhe mandara.

29Então foram Moysés e Aarão, e ajuntaram todos os anciãos dos filhos de Israel.

30E Aarão fallou todas as palavras que o Senhor fallara a Moysés, e fez os signaes perante os olhos do povo,

31E o povo creu, e ouviram que o Senhor visitava aos filhos d'Israel, e que via a sua afflicção: e inclinaram-se, e adoraram.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God gives Moses three miraculous signs to convince the people (the staff that becomes a serpent, the leprous hand, the water that becomes blood) and appoints Aaron as his spokesman; Moses sets out for Egypt with his family.

Explanation

This chapter shows God's patience in the face of Moses' repeated objections, as he fears not being believed and claims difficulty speaking. Rather than giving up on him, God offers concrete signs of His authority, and when Moses still resists, He provides Aaron as a partner to strengthen his confidence. God's reply, 'who hath made man's mouth?' (v. 11), reminds us that personal limitations are no obstacle for one whom God has called, since He Himself can enable and supplement human weaknesses through other people or means. The strange episode of Moses' wife, Zipporah, hurriedly circumcising their son to avert divine wrath shows how seriously God treated the sign of the covenant, even (or especially) within the family of the man who would become Israel's great leader. Today's lesson is that hesitations and personal limitations do not cancel out a genuine call from God, but they do call for trust and, at times, partnership with others.

Fun facts

  • The episode of Zipporah circumcising her son (v. 24-26) is one of the most enigmatic and debated passages in the entire Pentateuch, with scholars still discussing the exact details of what happened, but the general consensus is that it reinforces the absolute importance of the covenant sign before Moses could lead the covenant people.
  • The choice of Aaron as Moses' spokesman (v. 14-16) establishes a partnership that would become central throughout the narrative of Exodus, and Aaron would later also become Israel's first high priest, uniting prophecy and priesthood in the deliverance of the people.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Êxodo 4:1Moses raises another objection: he fears the Hebrew people themselves will not believe he really spoke with God, without some visible proof.
  2. Êxodo 4:2God uses a common everyday object of a shepherd’s life, the staff Moses was already carrying, to give the first sign that will convince the people.
  3. Êxodo 4:3The staff turns into a snake right before Moses’s own eyes, and he reacts with fear and flees — the first miracle of this kind that he himself witnesses.
  4. Êxodo 4:4Grabbing a snake by the tail, rather than right behind the head, would be dangerous in real life — the gesture requires Moses to trust God’s command even against his own instinct.
  5. Êxodo 4:5It explains the purpose of the sign: to convince the people that Moses was truly sent by the God of the patriarchs whom they already knew from tradition.
  6. Êxodo 4:6The hand that turns “leprous as snow” and then returns to normal is the second sign God gives Moses to prove to the Israelites that it was truly God who spoke with him. The term functions as a generic description of skin diseases that left the area whitened, not necessarily the leprosy we know today.
  7. Êxodo 4:7The same hand that had turned leprous in the previous verse returns to normal — the second sign shows the power both to cause and to heal.
  8. Êxodo 4:8God already foresees that one sign alone might not be enough, and equips Moses with a sequence of proofs, in case the first does not convince everyone.
  9. Êxodo 4:9A third sign is given as a backup: turning river water into blood, the same kind of miracle that will become the first of the plagues against Egypt.
  10. Êxodo 4:10“Slow of speech” is Moses’s way of saying he does not speak well, that he stumbles or stammers — it may be a real speech impediment or simply insecurity after years away from Egypt. It is because of this complaint that God decides to make Aaron his spokesman.
  11. Êxodo 4:11God answers Moses’s complaint about not speaking well by reminding him that He Himself determines each person’s abilities and limitations, including speech.
  12. Êxodo 4:12God’s promise is not to heal Moses’s speech difficulty, but to accompany him and guide him in exactly what he should say.
  13. Êxodo 4:13After all the assurances, Moses still asks, indirectly, that God send someone else in his place — a reluctance that provokes the reaction in the next verse.
  14. Êxodo 4:14It is the first time in the dialogue that God shows irritation, but He still offers a practical solution: Aaron, Moses’s brother, who speaks well and is already on his way.
  15. Êxodo 4:15It sets out the division of tasks between the two brothers: Moses receives God’s words and passes them on to Aaron, who then announces them to the people and to Pharaoh.
  16. Êxodo 4:16The phrase “thou shalt be to him instead of God” is not about divinity but about authority: Moses passes on the orders, and Aaron repeats them as his spokesman.
  17. Êxodo 4:17The same staff that turned into a snake at the start of the chapter becomes the tool with which Moses will carry out the coming signs and plagues.
  18. Êxodo 4:18Moses asks his father-in-law’s permission before leaving, without telling him all the details of God’s call — he only mentions wanting to check on his relatives in Egypt.
  19. Êxodo 4:19God assures Moses that the danger that made him flee Egypt, told in chapter 2, no longer exists, since the one who wanted to kill him has died.
  20. Êxodo 4:20Moses sets out for Egypt taking his whole family, and the staff he used in the signs comes to be called “the rod of God,” no longer just a shepherd’s plain staff.
  21. Êxodo 4:21The idea that God will harden Pharaoh’s heart is one of the points that draws the most discussion among scholars: in other passages it is Pharaoh himself who hardens his own heart, and only afterward does the text start saying it was God. A common reading is that God confirms and uses a stubbornness that was already the king’s own, rather than creating from scratch a will he did not have.
  22. Êxodo 4:22Calling Israel God’s “son, even my firstborn” is to say the people have a place of honor and priority — and it sets up the confrontation in the next verse, involving Pharaoh’s own firstborn.
  23. Êxodo 4:23It foreshadows, right at the start of Moses’s mission, the final plague that will only happen in chapter 12: the death of the Egyptian firstborn, the response to Pharaoh’s refusal.
  24. Êxodo 4:24This scene is one of the strangest in the book: out of nowhere, at a stop along the way, the LORD attacks Moses and nearly kills him, with no direct explanation in the text. The resolution of the crisis in the next verse, with the hurried circumcision of the son by Zipporah, suggests the problem was that Moses had not carried out this mark of the covenant on his own son before returning to lead the people.
  25. Êxodo 4:25Zipporah resolves the crisis on her own: she takes a sharp stone, circumcises the son right there, and touches Moses with the cut foreskin, calling him “a bloody husband.” The expression sounds like a bitter complaint — she carries out the rite under pressure, in a moment of danger, without the text properly explaining why it became a matter of life and death.
  26. Êxodo 4:26After Zipporah hurriedly circumcises the son, the attack against Moses stops — the text directly links the crisis to the boy’s missing mark of the covenant.
  27. Êxodo 4:27God also directs Aaron to go out and meet his brother, fulfilling what had already been promised to Moses in verse 14.
  28. Êxodo 4:28Before any public action, Moses fills Aaron in on everything that happened at the bush, preparing his brother for the role of spokesman.
  29. Êxodo 4:29Following the instruction received in 3:16, the two brothers first seek out the elders of the people, not the crowd in general.
  30. Êxodo 4:30Here the division agreed on earlier appears: Aaron speaks and performs the signs, while Moses remains the one who received God’s original message.
  31. Êxodo 4:31Unlike Moses’s fear at the start of the chapter, the people believe the signs and respond with worship — a positive outcome before the harder confrontation with Pharaoh.

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