Exodus 4:1

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹ Moses answered, "But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, 'Yahweh has not appeared to you.'" ² Yahweh said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod." ³ He said, "Throw it on the ground." He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses ran away from it. ⁴ Yahweh said to Moses, "Put forth your hand, and take it by the tail." He put forth his hand, and laid hold of it, and it became a rod in his hand. ⁵ "That they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." ⁶ Yahweh said furthermore to him, "Now put your hand inside your cloak." He put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. ⁷ He said, "Put your hand inside your cloak again." He put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, behold, it had turned again as his other flesh. ⁸ "It will happen, if they will neither believe you nor listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. ⁹ It will happen, if they will not believe even these two signs, neither listen to your voice, that you shall take of 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 dry land."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Exodus 4:31, Exodus 2:14, Exodus 3:18, Jeremiah 1:6, Ezekiel 3:14, Acts 7:25

Reciprocal: Genesis 18:1 - appeared Genesis 24:14 - thereby Exodus 3:12 - token Exodus 4:5 - That they Exodus 4:10 - eloquent Exodus 4:13 - send Numbers 16:28 - Hereby Judges 6:17 - show Judges 6:36 - If thou wilt

Cross-References

Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel."

Genesis 4:25
Adam knew his wife again. She gave birth to a son, and named him Seth. For, she said, "God has appointed me another child instead of Abel, for Cain killed him."

Genesis 5:29
and he named him Noah, saying, "This same will comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, because of the ground which Yahweh has cursed."

Numbers 31:17
Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.

1 John 3:12
unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Moses answered and said,.... In reference to what Jehovah had declared to him in the latter end of the preceding chapter:

but, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice; this seems to contradict what God had said to him, Exodus 3:18 that they would hearken to his voice; but it can hardly be thought, that so good a man, and so great a prophet as Moses was, would directly fly in the face of God, and expressly contradict what he had said. To reconcile this it may be observed, that what the Lord says respects only the elders of Israel, this all the people; or Jehovah's meaning may be, and so this of Moses, that neither the one nor the other would regard his bare word, without some sign or miracle being wrought; for as his call was extraordinary, so it required something extraordinary to be done that it might be credited:

for they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto me: in the bush, as he would affirm he did, and might do it with the greatest assurance; yet the thing being so marvellous, and they not eyewitnesses of it, might distrust the truth of it, or be backward to receive it on his bare word; and this Moses might rather fear would be the case, from the experience he had had of them forty years ago, when it was more likely for him to have been a deliverer of them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

With this chapter begins the series of miracles which resulted in the deliverance of Israel. The first miracle was performed to remove the first obstacle, namely, the reluctance of Moses, conscious of his own weakness, and of the enormous power with which he would have to contend.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER IV

Moses continuing to express his fear that the Israelites would not

credit his Divine mission, 1;

God, to strengthen his faith, and to assure him that his countrymen

would believe him, changed his rod into a serpent, and the serpent

into a rod, 2-5;

made his hand leprous, and afterwards restored it, 6, 7;

intimating that he had now endued him with power to work such

miracles, and that the Israelites would believe, 8;

and farther assures him that he should have power to turn the water

into blood, 9.

Moses excuses himself on the ground of his not being eloquent, 10,

and God reproves him for his unbelief, and promises to give him

supernatural assistance, 11, 12.

Moses expressing his utter unwillingness to go on any account, God

is angry, and then promises to give him his brother Aaron to be his

spokesman, 13-16,

and appoints his rod to be the instrument of working miracles, 17.

Moses returns to his relative Jethro, and requests liberty to visit

his brethren in Egypt, and is permitted, 18.

God appears to him in Midian, and assures him that the Egyptians who

sought his life were dead, 19.

Moses, with his wife and children, set out on their journey to

Egypt, 20.

God instructs him what he shall say to Pharaoh, 21-23.

He is in danger of losing his life, because he had not circumcised

his son, 24.

Zipporah immediately circumcising the child, Moses escapes

unhurt, 25, 26.

Aaron is commanded to go and meet his brother Moses; he goes and

meets him at Horeb, 27.

Moses informs him of the commission he had received from God, 28.

They both go to their brethren, deliver their message, and work

miracles, 29, 30.

The people believe and adore God, 31.

NOTES ON CHAP. IV

Verse Exodus 4:1. They will not believe me — As if he had said, Unless I be enabled to work miracles, and give them proofs by extraordinary works as well as by words, they will not believe that thou hast sent me.