The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.”
- KJV And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
- BSB And the LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.
- NKJV So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.”
- NLT Then the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God asks Moses what is in his hand—an ordinary shepherd's staff—about to become the instrument of His power. It matters because God works His deliverance through what we already hold when surrendered to Him.
Overview
As Moses raises objections, God meets him not with abstract assurance but with a question pointing to the rod in his hand. This common tool, used to tend Jethro's flock, will become the visible sign of God's authority before Pharaoh and Israel. The episode shows that God equips His servants with what is already in their grasp, foreshadowing how He later uses lowly means—a cross, ordinary bread and wine—to accomplish redemption.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Exod 4:17You shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”
- Exod 4:20Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God’s rod in his hand.
- Isa 11:4but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
- Ps 110:2Yahweh will send out the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule among your enemies.
- Lev 27:32All the tithe of the herds or the flocks, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to Yahweh.
- Gen 30:37Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.
- Mic 7:14Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your heritage, who dwell by themselves in a forest, in the middle of fertile pasture land, let them feed; in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 4:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.