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Exodus 4

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1 And Moses answered, and said, And behold, they will not believe me, and will not hear my voice; for they will say, Jehovah has not been seen by thee.

2 And Jehovah said to him, What is this in thy hand? And he said, A rod.

3 And He said, Cast it to the earth. And he cast it to the earth, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

4 And Jehovah said to Moses, Put·​·forth thy hand, and seize its tail; and he Put·​·forth his hand, and held· it ·firmly, and it became a rod in the palm of his hand;

5 in order that they may believe that Jehovah has been seen by thee, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

6 And Jehovah said more to him, Bring now thy hand into thy bosom. And he brought his hand into his bosom, and brought· it ·out, and behold his hand was leprous as snow.

7 And He said, Return thy hand to thy bosom; and he returned his hand to his bosom; and brought· it ·out from his bosom, and behold it was returned again as his flesh.

8 And it shall be, if they do not believe thee, and hear the voice of the former sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

9 And it shall be, if they do not believe also these two signs, and do not hearken to thy voice, then thou shalt take from the waters of the Nile, and spill on the dry land, and it shall be that the waters, which thou hast taken from the Nile, shall become blood on the dry land.

10 And Moses said to Jehovah, In·​·me*, Lord, I am not a man of words, even from yesterday, even from the day before*, even from this·​·time, in Thy speaking to Thy servant, for heavy of mouth, and heavy of tongue am I.

11 And Jehovah said to him, Who makes* the mouth for man? Or who makes him dumb, or deaf, or his eyes opened, or blind? Is it not I, Jehovah?

12 And now go, and I will be with thy mouth, and I will instruct thee in what thou shalt speak.

13 And he said, In·​·me, my Lord, send, I pray, by the hand of another whom* Thou wilt send.

14 And the anger of Jehovah was·​·fierce against Moses, and He said, Is there not Aaron, thy brother, the Levite? I know that speaking he will speak. And also behold he goes out to meet thee; and he will see thee, and he will be·​·glad in his heart.

15 And thou shalt speak to him, and shalt put the words in his mouth; and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do.

16 And he shall speak for thee to the people; and it shall be that he shall be to thee for a mouth, and thou shalt be to him for God.

17 And thou shalt take in thy hand this rod, with which thou shalt do the signs.

18 And Moses went, and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go, I pray, and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and I shall see whether they yet live. And Jethro said to Moses, go in peace.

19 And Jehovah said to Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt; because all the men seeking thy soul are·​·dead.

20 And Moses took his wife and his sons, and made them ride upon the donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt; and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

21 And Jehovah said to Moses, When thou goest to return to Egypt, see all the miracles which I have set in thy hand, and thou shalt do them before Pharaoh; and I will make· his heart ·firm, and he will not send· the people ·away.

22 And thou shalt say to Pharaoh, Thus said Jehovah, My son, My firstborn, is Israel.

23 And I say to thee, Send· My son ·away, and he will serve Me; and if thou refuse to Send· him ·away, behold I will kill thy son, thy firstborn.

24 And it was on the way, in the inn, that Jehovah encountered him, and sought to·​·put· him ·to·​·death.*

25 And Zipporah took a rock, and cut·​·off the foreskin of her son, and made it touch his feet; and she said, Because a bridegroom of bloods* art thou to me.

26 And He let· him ·go. Then she said, A bridegroom of bloods to circumcisions.

27 And Jehovah said to Aaron, Go to meet Moses, into the wilderness. And he went, and encountered him in the mountain of God, and kissed him.

28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of Jehovah, with which He had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him.

29 And Moses went, and Aaron, and gathered all the elders of the sons of Israel.

30 And Aaron spoke all the words which Jehovah had spoken to Moses, and did the signs before the eyes of the people.

31 And the people believed; and they heard that Jehovah had visited the sons of Israel, and that He had seen their affliction, and they bent·​·themselves, and bowed· themselves ·down.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Servant

  

“Servant” literally means “a person who serves another," and its meaning is similar in reference to its spiritual meanings of the Bible. Our lives in their most outward form -- the physical actions we take and the thoughts and feelings directly connected to them -- are in a way “servants” to our deeper, more hidden, internal thoughts and desires. So in most cases, “servants” in the Bible represent things we're doing and thinking on that outward, external level. Servants can have good masters or evil ones, obviously, and a servant doing good work in service of an evil master is actually making the world a more evil place. So the precise meaning of a given servant in the Bible depends on the nature of the master he or she is serving. Finally, when the Bible is addressing the Lord's own spiritual development, “servant” represents the Lord's most outward aspect: the human body he inherited from Mary, with all its frailties and potential for temptation.