Exodus 4:3

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

it became: Exodus 4:17, Exodus 7:10-15, Amos 5:19

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 13:3 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 4:1
The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, "I have gotten a man with Yahweh's help."

Genesis 4:11
Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

Numbers 18:12
All the best of the oil, and all the best of the vintage, and of the grain, the first fruits of them which they give to Yahweh, to you have I given them.

1 Kings 17:7
It happened after a while, that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

Nehemiah 13:6
But in all this [time] I was not at Jerusalem; for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king: and after certain days asked I leave of the king,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he said, cast it on the ground,.... That is, the rod or staff:

and he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; not in appearance only, but in reality, it was changed into a real living serpent; for God, who is the author of nature, can change the nature of things as he pleases; nor is it to be supposed that he would only make it look to the sight as if it was one, by working upon the fancy and imagination to think it was one, when it was not; no doubt but it was as really turned into a true serpent, as the water was turned really and truly into wine by our Lord; this was the first miracle that ever was wrought, that we know of. Dr. Lightfoot h observes, that as a serpent was the fittest emblem of the devil, Genesis 3:1 so was it a sign that Moses did not these miracles by the power of the devil, but had a power over and beyond him, when he could thus deal with the serpent at his pleasure, as to make his rod a serpent, and the serpent a rod, as he saw good:

and Moses fled from before it; the Jews say i it was a fiery serpent, but for this they have no warrant: however, without supposing that it might be terrible and frightful, inasmuch as a common serpent is very disagreeable to men, and such an uncommon and extraordinary one must be very surprising, to see a staff become a serpent, a living one, crawling and leaping about, and perhaps turning itself towards Moses, whose staff it had been. Philo the Jew k says, it was a dragon, an exceeding large one.

h Works, vol. 1. p. 702. i Pirke Eliezer, c. 40. k De Vita Mosls, l. 1. 614.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A serpent - This miracle had a meaning which Moses could not mistake. The serpent was probably the basilisk or Uraeus, the Cobra. This was the symbol of royal and divine power on the diadem of every Pharaoh. The conversion of the rod was not merely a portent, it was a sign, at once a pledge and representation of victory over the king and gods of Egypt!

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 4:3. A serpent — Of what sort we know not, as the word נחש nachash is a general name for serpents, and also means several other things, see Genesis 3:1: but it was either of a kind that he had not seen before, or one that he knew to be dangerous; for it is said, he fled from before it. Some suppose the staff was changed into a crocodile; Exodus 7:10.