And the LORD said, “If they refuse to believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe that of the second.
Parallel translations
- WEB “It will happen, if they will not believe you or listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
- KJV And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
- NKJV “Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign.
- NASB “So if they will not believe you nor pay attention to the evidence of the first sign, they may believe the evidence of the last sign.
- NLT The Lord said to Moses, “If they do not believe you and are not convinced by the first miraculous sign, they will be convinced by the second sign.
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 provides a second sign in case the first fails to persuade, accommodating Israel's weak faith. He patiently multiplies evidence so His people will believe.
Overview
Anticipating that some will doubt, God graciously stacks one sign upon another, meeting unbelief with mounting testimony. This reveals His patience and His desire that His people trust, not His indifference to their hardness. The progression also shows that faith rests on God's self-attestation; God condescends to confirm His word, as He supremely does in the resurrection of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Deut 32:39See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
- Exod 4:30–31and Aaron relayed everything the LORD had said to Moses. And Moses performed the signs before the people,
- Isa 28:10For they hear: “Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line; a little here, a little there.”
- 2 Kgs 5:7When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and asked, “Am I God, killing and giving life, that this man expects me to cure a leper? Surely you can see that he is seeking a quarrel with me!”
- Job 5:18For He wounds, but He also binds; He strikes, but His hands also heal.
- John 12:37Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him.
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 4:8 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
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