1. “They will never believe me or listen to me!” Moses protested. “They will say, ‘The Lord didn’t appear to you.’ ”
2. Then the Lord asked him, “What’s that in your hand?”He answered, “A shepherd’s staff.”
3. The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”When Moses threw it on the ground, it became a snake, and he ran away from it.
4. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out and grab the snake by its tail.” He reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a staff as he held it.
5. ⌊The Lord explained,⌋ “This is to convince the people that the Lord God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, appeared to you.”
6. The Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your shirt.” So Moses did this, and when he took his hand out, it had a skin disease. It looked as ⌊flaky as⌋ snow.
7. “Now put your hand back inside your shirt,” the Lord said. Moses put it back, and when he took it out this time, it was healthy again like the rest of his body.
8. ⌊Then the Lord said,⌋ “If they won’t believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second.
9. But if they won’t believe these two miraculous signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile River and pour it on the ground. The water you take from the Nile will turn into blood on the ground.”
10. Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I’m not a good speaker. I’ve never been a good speaker, and I’m not now, even though you’ve spoken to me. I speak slowly, and I become tongue-tied easily.”
11. The Lord asked him, “Who gave humans their mouths? Who makes humans unable to talk or hear? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? It is I, the Lord!