Exodus · Bible in Basic English
Exodus 4 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 And Moses, answering, said, It is certain that they will not have faith in me or give ear to my voice; for they will say, You have not seen the Lord.
1 Moses answered, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.’”
2 And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod.
2 Yahweh said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.”
3 And he said, Put it down on the earth. And he put it down on the earth and it became a snake; and Moses went running from it.
3 He said, “Throw it on the ground.” He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses ran away from it.
4 And the Lord said to Moses, Put out your hand and take it by the tail: (and he put out his hand and took a grip of it and it became a rod in his hand:)
4 Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand, and take it by the tail.” He stretched out his hand, and took hold of it, and it became a rod in his hand.
5 So that they may be certain that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by you.
5 “This is so that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
6 Then the Lord said to him again, Put your hand inside your clothing. And he put his hand inside his robe: and when he took it out it was like the hand of a leper, as white as snow.
6 Yahweh said furthermore to him, “Now put your hand inside your cloak.” He put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.
7 And he said, Put your hand inside your robe again. (And he put his hand into his robe again, and when he took it out he saw that it had become like his other flesh.)
7 He said, “Put your hand inside your cloak again.” He put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, behold, it had turned again as his other flesh.
8 And if they do not have faith in you or give ear to the voice of the first sign, they will have faith in the second sign.
8 “It will happen, if they will not believe you or listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
9 And if they have no faith even in these two signs and will not give ear to your voice, then you are to take the water of the Nile and put it on the dry land: and the water you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.
9 It will happen, if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, that you shall take of the water of the river, and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.”
10 And Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not a man of words; I have never been so, and am not now, even after what you have said to your servant: for talking is hard for me, and I am slow of tongue.
10 Moses said to Yahweh, “O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”
11 And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? who takes away a man's voice or hearing, or makes him seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
11 Yahweh said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, Yahweh?
12 So go now, and I will be with your mouth, teaching you what to say.
12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak.”
13 And he said, O Lord, send, if you will, by the hand of anyone whom it seems good to you to send.
13 Moses said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else.”
14 And the Lord was angry with Moses, and said, Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? To my knowledge he is good at talking. And now he is coming out to you: and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.
14 Yahweh’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “What about Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Also, behold, he is coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
15 Let him give ear to your voice, and you will put my words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his, teaching you what you have to do.
15 You shall speak to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do.
16 And he will do the talking for you to the people: he will be to you as a mouth and you will be to him as God.
16 He will be your spokesman to the people. It will happen that he will be to you a mouth, and you will be to him as God.
17 And take in your hand this rod with which you will do the signs.
17 You shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”
18 And Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go back now to my relations in Egypt and see if they are still living. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.
18 Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19 And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men are dead who were attempting to take your life.
19 Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return into Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.”
20 And Moses took his wife and his sons and put them on an ass and went back to the land of Egypt: and he took the rod of God in his hand.
20 Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God’s rod in his hand.
21 And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have given you power to do: but I will make his heart hard and he will not let the people go.
21 Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.
22 And you are to say to Pharaoh, The Lord says, Israel is the first of my sons:
22 You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Yahweh says, Israel is my son, my firstborn,
23 And I said to you, Let my son go, so that he may give me worship; and you did not let him go: so now I will put the first of your sons to death.
23 and I have said to you, “Let my son go, that he may serve me;” and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”
24 Now on the journey, at the night's resting-place, the Lord came in his way and would have put him to death.
24 On the way at a lodging place, Yahweh met Moses and wanted to kill him.
25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cutting off the skin of her son's private parts, and touching his feet with it, she said, Truly you are a husband of blood to me.
25 Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”
26 So he let him go. Then she said, You are a husband of blood because of the circumcision.
26 So he let him alone. Then she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
27 And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the waste land and you will see Moses. So he went and came across Moses at the mountain of God, and gave him a kiss.
27 Yahweh said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” He went, and met him on God’s mountain, and kissed him.
28 And Moses gave Aaron an account of all the words of the Lord which he had sent him to say, and of all the signs which he had given him orders to do.
28 Moses told Aaron all Yahweh’s words with which he had sent him, and all the signs with which he had instructed him.
29 Then Moses and Aaron went and got together all the chiefs of the children of Israel:
29 Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel.
30 And Aaron said to them all the words the Lord had said to Moses, and did the signs before all the people.
30 Aaron spoke all the words which Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.
31 And the people had faith in them; and hearing that the Lord had taken up the cause of the children of Israel and had seen their troubles, with bent heads they gave him worship.
31 The people believed, and when they heard that Yahweh had visited the children of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Aaron
Moses' brother and spokesman, Israel's first high priest.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 4–40; Leviticus 8–10
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Zipporah
The Midianite daughter of Jethro who became Moses' wife in the wilderness.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2:16-22; Exodus 4:24-26; Exodus 18
Cross references (30)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Exodus 3:18; Exodus 4:31; Jeremiah 1:6; Exodus 2:14; Acts 7:25
- 2 Exodus 4:20; Exodus 4:17; Psalm 110:2; Isaiah 11:4; Genesis 30:37
- 3 Exodus 7:10–15; Amos 5:19; Exodus 4:17
- 4 Mark 16:18; Acts 28:3–6; Luke 10:19; Psalm 91:13; John 2:5
- 5 Exodus 19:9; Genesis 26:2; Exodus 3:15; Genesis 12:7; Genesis 48:3
- 6 2 Kings 5:27; Numbers 12:10
- 7 2 Kings 5:14; Deuteronomy 32:39; Matthew 8:3; Numbers 12:13–15
- 8 Isaiah 28:10; Deuteronomy 32:39; Exodus 4:30–31; 2 Kings 5:7; Job 5:18
- 9 Exodus 1:22; Exodus 7:19–25; Matthew 7:2
- 10 Jeremiah 1:6; Exodus 6:12; Acts 7:22; Exodus 4:1; 2 Corinthians 11:6
- 11 Psalm 146:8; Isaiah 6:7; Amos 3:6; Psalm 94:9; Ezekiel 3:26–27
- 12 Jeremiah 1:9; Luke 12:11–12; Matthew 10:19–20; Luke 21:14–15; Mark 13:11
- 13 Jonah 1:3; Exodus 4:1; Ezekiel 3:14–15; Jonah 1:6; John 6:29
- 14 Mark 14:13–15; 1 Chronicles 21:7; Exodus 4:27; 2 Corinthians 7:6–7; Philippians 2:21
- 15 Isaiah 51:16; Deuteronomy 18:18; Numbers 23:16; Numbers 23:12; Luke 21:15
- 16 Exodus 7:1–2; Psalm 82:6; John 10:34–35; Exodus 18:19
- 17 Exodus 4:2; 1 Corinthians 1:27; Exodus 7:9–20
- 18 Exodus 3:1; Luke 7:50; 1 Timothy 6:1; Acts 16:36; Genesis 45:3
- 19 Matthew 2:20; Exodus 2:23; Exodus 2:15
- 20 Exodus 17:9; Numbers 20:8–9; Exodus 4:2; Exodus 18:3–4; Numbers 20:11
- 21 Romans 9:18; Joshua 11:20; Isaiah 63:17; Exodus 14:8; Exodus 7:13
- 22 Hosea 11:1; Romans 9:4; Jeremiah 31:9; Hebrews 12:23; Deuteronomy 14:1
- 23 Exodus 12:29; Exodus 11:5; Psalm 135:8; Psalm 105:36; Exodus 5:1
- 24 Genesis 17:14; Numbers 22:22–23; 1 Chronicles 21:16; Leviticus 10:3; Exodus 3:18
- 25 Joshua 5:2–3; Genesis 17:14; 2 Samuel 16:7
- 27 Exodus 3:1; Acts 10:5–6; Ecclesiastes 4:9; Exodus 20:18; Acts 10:20
- 28 Exodus 4:15–16; Exodus 4:8–9; Matthew 21:29; Jonah 3:2
- 29 Exodus 3:16; Exodus 24:11; Exodus 24:1
- 30 Exodus 4:16
- 31 Exodus 3:18; Exodus 12:27; Exodus 2:25; Psalm 106:12–13; Exodus 3:16
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
And nevertheless Moses feared and fled. What is it that Moses fled from that serpent?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
Thus Moses also first is in fear of the serpent, and not merely in fear, but even with much distress: and then he sees that strange thing come to pass. So these too, having first looked to perish, were then saved, that having confessed the danger, they might learn the greatness of the miracle.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… have a thing which without doubt we can ascribe to them; the dyings of the beasts, the dyings of the first-born, and this especially whence all these things proceeded, namely, the hardening of heart, so that they would not let go the people of God. For when God is said to make this most iniquitous and malignant obstinacy, He maketh …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
… in behalf of heartless and disobedient men; and by the very persons who were saved by them, they were brought into extreme danger; and each of them wishing to withdraw men from idolatry; and each being unlearned; for the one was of a "slow tongue," and dull of speech, and the other for his part also somewhat of the rudest …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)