16. He will speak to the people for you: he will be your spokesman, and you will be as God to him.
17. Take this staff in your hand; with it you are to perform the signs.
18. After this Moses returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my kindred in Egypt, to see whether they are still living.” Jethro replied to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19. Then the Lord said to Moses in Midian: Return to Egypt, for all those who sought your life are dead.
20. So Moses took his wife and his sons, mounted them on the donkey, and started back to the land of Egypt. Moses took the staff of God with him.
21. The Lord said to Moses: On your return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.
22. So you will say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord: Israel is my son, my firstborn.
23. I said to you: Let my son go, that he may serve me. Since you refused to let him go, I will kill your son, your firstborn.
24. On the journey, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord came upon Moses and sought to put him to death.
25. But Zipporah took a piece of flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and, touching his feet, she said, “Surely you are a spouse of blood to me.”
26. So God let Moses alone. At that time she said, “A spouse of blood,” in regard to the circumcision.
27. The Lord said to Aaron: Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went; when meeting him at the mountain of God, he kissed him.
28. Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and all the signs he had commanded him to do.
29. Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the Israelites.
30. Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses, and he performed the signs before the people.
31. The people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had observed the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they knelt and bowed down.