Chapter 4

  Moses answered and said: They will not believe me, nor hear my voice, but they will say: The Lord hath not appeared to thee.  

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  Then he said to him: What is that thou holdest in thy hand? He answered: A rod.  

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  And the Lord said: Cast it down upon the ground. He cast it down, and it was turned into a serpent: so that Moses fled from it.  

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  And the Lord said: Put out thy hand and take it by the tail. He put forth his hand, and took hold of it, and it was turned into a rod.  

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  That they may believe, saith he, that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to thee.  

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  And the Lord said again: Put thy hand into thy bosom. And when he had put it into his bosom, he brought it forth leprous as snow.  

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  And he said: Put back thy hand into thy bosom. He put it back, and brought it out again, and it was like the other flesh.  

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  If they will not believe thee, saith he, nor hear the voice of the former sign, they will believe the word of the latter sign.  

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  But if they will not even believe these two signs, nor hear thy voice: take of the river water, and pour it out upon the dry land, and whatsoever thou drawest out of the river shall be turned into blood.  

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  Moses said: I beseech thee, Lord. I am not eloquent from yesterday and the day before: and since thou hast spoken to thy servant, I have more impediment and slowness of tongue.  

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  The Lord said to him: Who made man's mouth? or who made the dumb and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? did not I?  

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  Go therefore and I will be in thy mouth: and I will teach thee what thou shalt speak.  

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  But he said: I beseech thee, Lord send whom thou wilt send.  

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  The Lord being angry at Moses, said Aaron the Levite is thy brother, I know that he is eloquent: behold he cometh forth to meet thee, and seeing thee shall be glad at heart.  

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  Speak to him, and put my words in his mouth: and I will be in thy mouth, and in his mouth, and will shew you what you must do.  

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  He shall speak in thy stead to the people, and shall be thy mouth: but thou shalt be to him in those things that pertain to God.  

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  And take this rod in thy hand, wherewith thou shalt do the signs.  

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  Moses went his way, and returned to Jethro his father in law and said to him: I will go and return to my brethren into Egypt, that I may see if they be yet alive. And Jethro said to him: Go in peace.  

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  And the Lord said to Moses, in Madian: Go, and return into Egypt: for they are all dead that sought thy life.  

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  Moses therefore took his wife, and his sons, and set them upon an ass: and returned into Egypt, carrying the rod of God in his hand.  

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  And the Lord said to him as he was returning into Egypt: See that thou do all the wonders before Pharao, which I have put in thy hand: I shall harden his heart, and he will not let the people go.  

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  And thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Israel is my son, my firstborn.  

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  I have said to thee: Let my son go, that he may serve me, and thou wouldst not let him go: behold I will kill thy son, thy firstborn.  

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  And when he was in his journey, in the inn, the Lord met him, and would have killed him.  

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  Immediately Sephora took a very sharp stone, and circumcised the fore skin of her son, and touched his feet and said: A bloody spouse art thou to me.  

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  And he let him go after she had said A bloody spouse art thou to me, because of the circumcision.  

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  And the Lord said to Aaron: Go into the desert to meet Moses. And he went forth to meet him in the mountain of God, and kissed him.  

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  And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord, by which he had sent him, and the signs that he had commanded.  

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  And they came together, and they assembled all the ancients of the children of Israel.  

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  And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had said to Moses: and he wrought the signs before the people,  

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  And the people believed. And they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel: and that he had looked upon their affliction: and falling down they adored.  

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