your distress, and he himself will lead you out and set you free from your bondage in Egypt and bring you up at length into the land that he promised to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, even into Canaan, a good land and a wide, a land flowing with milk and honey.” And they will listen and pay heed to thee. Then thou and the elders of Israel shall come together into the presence of Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and thou shalt say to him: “The Lord God of the Hebrews hath revealed himself to us and called us to do his bidding. We entreat thee to let us go three days’ journey out of Egypt into the solitude of the wilderness that we may make solemn sacrifice to the Lord our God.”

‘But the King of Egypt will refuse to hearken. He is set up in his pride, and no plea or entreaty will move him or cause him to waver. Then shall I stretch forth my hand and I shall smite Egypt with my marvels. Egypt shall be afflicted and all men shall wonder. In that day not only shall this Pharaoh set my people free, but they shall go rejoicing, with their sons and their daughters, and burdened with the riches of Egypt, jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and fine raiment. The proud and haughty of Egypt shall heap gifts upon them and shall urge them to hasten and be gone.’

But Moses, still doubting within himself, answered and said: ‘But even yet it may be that when I appear before the elders of Israel and say the Eternal hath sent me, and declare the sacred name, they may still refuse to believe me, and deny that I come from God. How then shall I give proof of it?’

The voice said: ‘What is it in thy hand?’

He answered: ‘My shepherd’s staff.’

Then said the Lord: ‘Cast it upon the ground.’

Moses, as he was bidden, flung down his staff, and behold, as it touched the rock on which it fell, it became a serpent, living and venomous, and Moses started back from it in fear.

Then said the Lord: ‘Put out thy hand without fear and seize the serpent by the tail.’

Moses stooped, and seized the serpent; and its being changed, and lo, it was his shepherd’s staff that was again in his hand.

Then said the Lord: ‘Thrust thy hand into thy bosom.’

He did so. And when he plucked it out of his bosom, it had become like the silvery hand of a leper and was white as snow.

Then said the voice: ‘Cover thy hand again.’

And when Moses withdrew his hand, it no longer resembled that of a leper, but was restored to the likeness of the other.

Then said the Lord: ‘If when thou appear before the elders of Israel, they believe not that thou art come from the Eternal, and refuse to be convinced either by the one sign I have given thee or by the other, and will not listen to thee, then do thou fill a vessel with the water of the river of Egypt and pour it out upon the parched sands on the bank of the river, and the water which thou hast taken out of the river shall become red as blood upon the sand.’

Then said Moses: ‘O Lord God, I beseech thee to have patience with me. I am by nature slow and halting of speech and ever have been. Nor even while thou hast been speaking with me have I been able to say what is in my heart, for I am a man without any skill in the use of words. How then shall I speak before the elders of Israel so that they shall be persuaded and believe in me, and that thou hast sent me?’