Exodus 4:1
New International Version
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”

New Living Translation
But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The LORD never appeared to you’?”

English Standard Version
Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’”

Berean Standard Bible
Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’ ”

King James Bible
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.

New King James Version
Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’ ”

New American Standard Bible
Then Moses said, “What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

NASB 1995
Then Moses said, “What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

NASB 1977
Then Moses answered and said, “What if they will not believe me, or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

Legacy Standard Bible
Then Moses answered and said, “What if they will not believe me and will not listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.’”

Amplified Bible
Then Moses answered [the LORD] and said, “What if they will not believe me or take seriously what I say? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

Christian Standard Bible
Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’? ”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Then Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you?”

American Standard Version
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, Jehovah hath not appeared unto thee.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Moshe answered and said, “Behold, they will not believe me and will not hear my voice, because they will say, ‘LORD JEHOVAH has not appeared to you.’”

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Moses answered and said, If they believe me not, and do not hearken to my voice (for they will say, God has not appeared to thee), what shall I say to them?

Contemporary English Version
Moses asked the LORD, "Suppose everyone refuses to listen to my message, and no one believes that you really appeared to me?"

Douay-Rheims Bible
Moses answered and said: They will not believe me, nor hear my voice, but they will say: The Lord hath not appeared to thee.

English Revised Version
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"They will never believe me or listen to me!" Moses protested. "They will say, 'The LORD didn't appear to you.'"

Good News Translation
Then Moses answered the LORD, "But suppose the Israelites do not believe me and will not listen to what I say. What shall I do if they say that you did not appear to me?"

International Standard Version
Then Moses answered, "Look, they won't believe me and they won't listen to me. Instead, they'll say, 'The LORD didn't appear to you.'"

JPS Tanakh 1917
And Moses answered and said: 'But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say: The lord hath not appeared unto thee.'

Literal Standard Version
And Moses answers and says, “And if they do not give credence to me, nor listen to my voice, and say, YHWH has not appeared to you?”

Majority Standard Bible
Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

New American Bible
“But,” objected Moses, “suppose they do not believe me or listen to me? For they may say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’ ”

NET Bible
Moses answered again, "And if they do not believe me or pay attention to me, but say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you'?"

New Revised Standard Version
Then Moses answered, “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’”

New Heart English Bible
Moses answered, "But, look, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, 'God has not appeared to you.'"

Webster's Bible Translation
And Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared to thee.

World English Bible
Moses answered, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.’”

Young's Literal Translation
And Moses answereth and saith, 'And, if they do not give credence to me, nor hearken to my voice, and say, Jehovah hath not appeared unto thee?'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Moses' Staff
1Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’” 2And the LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.…

Cross References
Exodus 3:15
God also told Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.

Exodus 3:16
Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.

Exodus 3:18
The elders of Israel will listen to what you say, and you must go with them to the king of Egypt and tell him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.'

Exodus 4:10
"Please, Lord," Moses replied, "I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue."

Exodus 4:30
and Aaron relayed everything the LORD had said to Moses. And Moses performed the signs before the people,

Exodus 6:12
But in the LORD's presence Moses replied, "If the Israelites will not listen to me, then why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I am unskilled in speech?"

Exodus 6:30
But in the LORD's presence Moses replied, "Since I am unskilled in speech, why would Pharaoh listen to me?"


Treasury of Scripture

And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice: for they will say, The LORD has not appeared to you.

Exodus 4:31
And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

Exodus 2:14
And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.

Exodus 3:1
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

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Exodus 4
1. Moses's rod is turned into a serpent.
6. His hand is leprous.
10. He loathes his calling.
13. Aaron is appointed to assist him.
18. Moses departs from Jethro.
21. God's message to Pharaoh.
24. Zipporah circumcises her son.
27. Aaron is sent to meet Moses.
29. The people believe them.














IV.

(1) Behold.--Some render the word here used by "perhaps" (LXX., Aben-Ezra, Saadia, &c); but it does not appear to have anywhere this meaning. Moses meant to express a positive conviction that he would not be listened to. His faith was weak.

They will say, The Lord hath not appeared.--It is very probable that the people would have said this if Moses had not had any credentials to produce. It is even possible that they did say it. There had been no appearance of Jehovah to any one for above four hundred years, and they might well think that the age of miracles was past. Miracles cluster around certain crises in God's dealings with man, ceasing alto gether between one crisis and another. They were suspended for above 500 years between the time of Daniel and the appearance of the angel to Zacharias.

Verses 1-17. - The reluctance of Moses to undertake the part of leader, indicated by his first reply at his first calling, "Who am I that I should go?" etc. (Exodus 3:11), was not yet overcome. God had promised that he would succeed; but he did not see how he could succeed, either with the people or with Pharaoh. It was not enough for him that God had declared, "They (the people) shall hearken unto thy voice" (ib. 18); he does not, cannot believe this, and replies: "Behold, they will not believe, neither hearken unto my voice" (Exodus 4:1). This was plain want of faith; but not unnatural, and not, in God's sight, inexcusable. God therefore condescended to the human weakness of his servant, and proceeded to show him how he intended that he should persuade the people of his mission. He should persuade them by producing the credentials of miracles (vers. 2-9). But the laggard heart finds yet a further objection. Moses feels that he labours under a personal defect, which (he thinks) is an absolute disqualification. He is "slow of speech and of a slow tongue" (ver. 10), has always been wanting in eloquence, and does not find himself any the more eloquent since God has been speaking with him. In vain does Jehovah promise to "be with his mouth" (ver. 12); Moses' last word indicates all the old feeling of self-distrust. "Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send" (ver. 13). Then at last the anger of the Lord is kindled against Moses, and God inflicts on him a sort of punishment - degrades him; as it were - deposes him from the position of sole leader, and associates Aaron with him in such sort that Aaron must have appeared, both to the Israelites and to the Pharaoh, as the chief leader rather than Moses. (See Exodus 4:30; Exodus 7:2, 10, 19; Exodus 8:6, 17, etc.) At this point the interview between Moses and Jehovah ends, and the action of the Exodus commences. Moses obtains leave to quit Midian, and quits it - retires to Egypt, after escaping from a dangerous sickness on the way (vers. 24-26), is met by Aaron and takes him into his counsels, summons the elders and exhibits before them his miraculous powers, persuades them, and is finally accepted as having, with Aaron, a mission from God, both by the elders and the people. Verse 1 - Behold, they will not believe. Attempts have been made to soften down this contradiction of God's words in Exodus 3:18, and to represent Moses as merely saying, "What if the people will not hearken, etc. What shall I do then?" (So the LXX., Geddes, Boothroyd, and others.) But the phrase is really emphatic and peremptory. As Rosenmuller says: "Vox est negantis et detrac-tantis officium." The Lord hath not appeared to thee. It is quite probable that the Israelites would have so spoken, if Moses had had no sign to show. There had been no appearance of Jehovah to anyone for above four hundred years. And the Israelites, who had not seen Moses for forty years, would not know whether he was a veracious person or not.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Then Moses
מֹשֶׁה֙ (mō·šeh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 4872: Moses -- a great Israelite leader, prophet and lawgiver

answered,
וַיַּ֤עַן (way·ya·‘an)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6030: To answer, respond

“What if
וְהֵן֙ (wə·hên)
Conjunctive waw | Interjection
Strong's 2005: Lo! behold!

they refuse
לֹֽא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

to believe
יַאֲמִ֣ינוּ (ya·’ă·mî·nū)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 539: To confirm, support

me
לִ֔י (lî)
Preposition | first person common singular
Strong's Hebrew

or
וְלֹ֥א (wə·lō)
Conjunctive waw | Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

listen
יִשְׁמְע֖וּ (yiš·mə·‘ū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 8085: To hear intelligently

to my voice?
בְּקֹלִ֑י (bə·qō·lî)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 6963: A voice, sound

For
כִּ֣י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

they may say,
יֹֽאמְר֔וּ (yō·mə·rū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 559: To utter, say

‘The LORD
יְהוָֽה׃ (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

has not
לֹֽא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

appeared
נִרְאָ֥ה (nir·’āh)
Verb - Nifal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7200: To see

to you.’”
אֵלֶ֖יךָ (’ê·le·ḵā)
Preposition | second person masculine singular
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to


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OT Law: Exodus 4:1 Moses answered But behold they will not (Exo. Ex)
Exodus 3:22
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