17. You must take this rod in your hand, with which you will perform the signs.”
18. Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive.”And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19. The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt, for all the men are dead who sought your life.”
20. Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
21. The Lord said to Moses, “When you go to return into Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart, so that he shall not let the people go.
22. You shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is My son, even My firstborn.
23. So I say to you, “Let My son go, that he may serve Me. And if you refuse to let him go, I will slay your son, even your firstborn.” ’ ”
24. At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to kill him.
25. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and threw it at his feet, and said, “Surely a bloody husband are you to me.”
26. So He let him go. Then she said, “A bloody husband you are, because of the circumcision.”