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Exodus 4

KJV · Chapter 4/40

1And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.

2And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

3And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

4And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

5That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.

6And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.

7And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

8And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

9And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.

10And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

11And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?

12Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

13And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.

14And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.

15And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.

16And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.

17And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.

18And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.

19And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life.

20And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

21And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

22And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:

23And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.

24And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him.

25Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.

26So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

27And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.

28And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him.

29And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel:

30And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.

31And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

📖 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. Exodus 4:1Moses raises another objection: he fears the Hebrew people themselves will not believe he really spoke with God, without some visible proof.
  2. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 4:27God also directs Aaron to go out and meet his brother, fulfilling what had already been promised to Moses in verse 14.
  28. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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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