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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
- Exod 4:30–31And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.
- Isa 28:10For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
- 2 Kgs 5:7And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.
- Job 5:18For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
- John 12:37But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on 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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