70|Exodus 3:16
Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.
16 Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your affliction in Egypt, into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18 The elders of Israel will listen to what you say, and you must go with them to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’
19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless a mighty hand compels him.[1] 20 So I will stretch out My hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders I will perform among them. And after that, he will release you.
21 And I will grant this people such favor in the sight of the Egyptians that when you leave, you will not go away empty-handed. 22 Every woman shall ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Moses’ Staff
4 Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”
2 And the LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
3 “Throw it on the ground,” said the LORD. So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake,[2] and he ran from it.
4 “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail,” the LORD said to Moses, who reached out his hand and caught the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
Moses’ Hand
6 Furthermore, the LORD said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your cloak.[3]” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous,[4] white as snow.
7 “Put your hand back inside your cloak,” said the LORD.
So Moses put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his skin.
8 And the LORD said, “If they refuse to believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe that of the second. 9 But if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. Then the water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.”
The Appointment of Aaron
10 “Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since
- ↑ 19 Literally except by a mighty hand
- ↑ 3 Hebrew nachash, in contrast to Aaron’s staff, which became a tannin in Exodus 7:10
- ↑ 6 Hebrew into your bosom; twice in this verse and twice in verse 7
- ↑ 6 The Hebrew word traditionally translated as leprous was used for various skin diseases; see Leviticus 13.
