6. Then the lord said to Moses, “Now put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out again, his hand was white as snow with a severe skin disease.
7. “Now put your hand back into your cloak,” the lord said. So Moses put his hand back in, and when he took it out again, it was as healthy as the rest of his body.
8. The lord said to Moses, “If they do not believe you and are not convinced by the first miraculous sign, they will be convinced by the second sign.
9. And if they don’t believe you or listen to you even after these two signs, then take some water from the Nile River and pour it out on the dry ground. When you do, the water from the Nile will turn to blood on the ground.”
10. But Moses pleaded with the lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.”
11. Then the lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the lord?
12. Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”
13. But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.”
14. Then the lord became angry with Moses. “All right,” he said. “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look! He is on his way to meet you now. He will be delighted to see you.
15. Talk to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do.
16. Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say.
17. And take your shepherd’s staff with you, and use it to perform the miraculous signs I have shown you.”
18. So Moses went back home to Jethro, his father-in-law. “Please let me return to my relatives in Egypt,” Moses said. “I don’t even know if they are still alive.”“Go in peace,” Jethro replied.
19. Before Moses left Midian, the lord said to him, “Return to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you have died.”
20. So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to the land of Egypt. In his hand he carried the staff of God.
21. And the lord told Moses, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go.
22. Then you will tell him, ‘This is what the lord says: Israel is my firstborn son.
23. I commanded you, “Let my son go, so he can worship me.” But since you have refused, I will now kill your firstborn son!’”
24. On the way to Egypt, at a place where Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the lord confronted him and was about to kill him.
25. But Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She touched his feet with the foreskin and said, “Now you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”
26. (When she said “a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.) After that, the lord left him alone.