17. Take this stick with you; for with it you will perform miracles.”
18. Then Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go back to my relatives in Egypt to see if they are still alive.” Jethro agreed and said goodbye to him.
19. While Moses was still in Midian, the Lord said to him, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.”
20. So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and set out with them for Egypt, carrying the stick that God had told him to take.
21. Again the Lord said to Moses, “Now that you are going back to Egypt, be sure to perform before the king all the miracles which I have given you the power to do. But I will make the king stubborn, and he will not let the people go.
22. Then you must tell him that I, the Lord, say, ‘Israel is my firstborn son.
23. I told you to let my son go, so that he might worship me, but you refused. Now I am going to kill your firstborn son.’ ”