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Êxodo 4

BLIVRE · Chapter 4/40

1Então Moisés respondeu, e disse: Eis que eles não crerão em mim, nem ouvirão minha voz; porque dirão: O SENHOR não apareceu a ti.

2E o SENHOR disse: Que é isso que tens em tua mão? E ele respondeu: Uma vara.

3E ele lhe disse: Lança-a em terra. E ele a lançou em terra, e tornou-se uma cobra: e Moisés fugia dela.

4Então disse o SENHOR a Moisés: Estende tua mão, e toma-a pela cauda. E ele estendeu sua mão, e tomou-a, e tornou-se vara em sua mão.

5Por isto crerão que se te apareceu o SENHOR, o Deus de teus pais, o Deus de Abraão, Deus de Isaque, e Deus de Jacó.

6E disse-lhe mais o SENHOR: Mete agora tua mão em teu peito. E ele meteu a mão em seu peito; e quando a tirou, eis que sua mão estava leprosa como a neve.

7E disse: Volta a meter tua mão em teu peito; e ele voltou a meter sua mão em seu peito; e voltando-a a tirar do peito, eis que se havia voltado como a outra carne.

8Se acontecer, que não te crerem, nem obedecerem à voz do primeiro sinal, crerão à voz do último.

9E se ainda não crerem nestes dois sinais, nem ouvirem tua voz, tomarás das águas do rio, e as derramará em terra; e se tornarão aquelas águas que tomarás do rio, se tornarão sangue na terra.

10Então disse Moisés ao SENHOR: Ai Senhor! Eu não sou homem de palavras de ontem nem de anteontem, nem ainda desde que tu falas a teu servo; porque sou lento no fala e incômodo de língua.

11E o SENHOR lhe respondeu: Quem deu a boca ao homem? Ou quem fez ao mudo e ao surdo, ao que vai e ao cego? não sou eu, o SENHOR?

12Agora pois, vai, que eu serei em tua boca, e te ensinarei o que tenhas de falar.

13E ele disse: Ai Senhor! envia por meio do que hás de enviar.

14Então o SENHOR se irou contra Moisés, e disse: Não conheço eu a teu irmão Arão, levita, e que ele fala bem? E ainda eis que ele sairá para te receber, e vendo-te, se alegrará em seu coração.

15Tu falarás a ele, e porás em sua boca as palavras, e eu serei em tua boca e na sua, e vos ensinarei o que deveis fazer.

16E ele falará por ti ao povo; e ele te será a ti em lugar de boca, e tu serás para ele em lugar de Deus.

17E tomarás esta vara em tua mão, com a qual farás os sinais.

18Assim se foi Moisés, e voltando a seu sogro Jetro, disse-lhe: Irei agora, e voltarei a meus irmãos que estão em Egito, para ver se ainda vivem. E Jetro disse a Moisés: Vai em paz.

19Disse também o SENHOR a Moisés em Midiã: Vai, e volta-te ao Egito, porque mataram todos os que procuravam tua morte.

20Então Moisés tomou sua mulher e seus filhos, e os pôs sobre um asno, e voltou-se à terra do Egito: tomou também Moisés a vara de Deus em sua mão.

21E disse o SENHOR a Moisés: Quando houverdes voltado ao Egito, olha que faças diante de Faraó todas as maravilhas que pus em tua mão: eu, porém, endurecerei seu coração, de modo que não deixará ir ao povo.

22E dirás a Faraó: O SENHOR disse assim: Israel é meu filho, meu primogênito.

23Já te disse que deixes ir a meu filho, para que me sirva, mas não quiseste deixá-lo ir: eis que eu vou a matar a teu filho, o teu primogênito.

24E aconteceu no caminho, que em uma parada o SENHOR lhe saiu ao encontro, e quis matá-lo.

25Então Zípora agarrou uma pedra afiada, e cortou o prepúcio de seu filho, e lançou-o a seus pés, dizendo: Em verdade tu me és um esposo de sangue.

26Assim lhe deixou logo ir. E ela disse: Esposo de sangue, por causa da circuncisão.

27E o SENHOR disse a Arão: Vai receber a Moisés ao deserto. E ele foi, e encontrou-o no monte de Deus, e beijou-lhe.

28Então contou Moisés a Arão todas as palavras do SENHOR que lhe enviava, e todas o sinais que lhe havia dado.

29E foram Moisés e Arão, e juntaram todos os anciãos dos filhos de Israel:

30E falou Arão todas as palavras que o SENHOR havia dito a Moisés, e fez o sinais diante dos olhos do povo.

31E o povo creu; e ouvindo que o SENHOR havia visitado os filhos de Israel, e que havia visto sua aflição, 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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