1. Then Moses said, “But look, they will not believe me or listen to my voice. They will say, ‘Adonai has not appeared to you.’”
2. So Adonai said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he said.
3. Then He said, “Cast it on the ground.” When he cast it to the ground, it became a serpent, so Moses fled from before it.
4. Then Adonai said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand, and take it by the tail.” So he put out his hand, laid hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.
5. “This is so that they may believe Adonai, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—has appeared to you.”
6. Adonai also said to him, “Now put your hand within your cloak.” So he put his hand inside, and when he took it out, his hand had tza'arat—white as snow.
7. Then He said, “Put your hand back into your cloak.” So he put his hand back in, and when he took it out it was restored again as the rest of his skin.
8. Then He said, “If they do not believe you, or listen to the voice of the first sign, they will believe the message of the latter sign.
9. But if they do not believe even these two signs nor listen to your voice, you are to take 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 ground.”
10. But Moses said to Adonai, “Adonai, I am not a man of words—not yesterday, nor the day before, nor since You have spoken to Your servant—because I have a slow mouth and a heavy tongue.”
11. So Adonai said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes a man mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, Adonai?
12. Now go! I will be with your mouth and teach you what to say.”