¹⁹ Yet I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless his hand is forced. ²⁰ So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wondrous deeds I will do in its midst. After that he will let you go.

² The Lord said to him: What is in your hand? “A staff,” he answered.

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses: Now stretch out your hand and take hold of its tail. So he stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.

⁶ Again the Lord said to him: Put your hand into the fold of your garment. So he put his hand into the fold of his garment, and when he drew it out, there was his hand covered with scales, like snowflakes.

⁷ Then God said: Put your hand back into the fold of your garment. So he put his hand back into the fold of his garment, and when he drew it out, there it was again like his own flesh.

¹⁷ Take this staff^[a] in your hand; with it you are to perform the signs.

²⁰ So Moses took his wife and his sons, mounted them on the donkey, and started back to the land of Egypt. Moses took the staff of God with him.

²¹ and said to them, “The Lord look upon you and judge! You have made us offensive to Pharaoh and his servants, putting a sword into their hands to kill us.”

Chapter 6

¹ The Lord answered Moses: Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. For by a strong hand, he will let them go; by a strong hand,^[a] he will drive them from his land.

⁴ Pharaoh will not listen to you. Therefore I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring my armies, my people the Israelites, out of the land of Egypt.