Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 4

Behold. — Some interpret the word used here as “perhaps” (Septuagint, Aben-Ezra, Saadia, etc.); but it does not appear to have this meaning anywhere. Moses meant to express a positive conviction that he would not be listened to. His faith was weak.

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 anyone for more than 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 humanity, ceasing altogether between one crisis and another. They were suspended for more than 500 years between the time of Daniel and the appearance of the angel to Zacharias.

A rod. — Most commentators regard the “rod” of Moses as his shepherd’s crook, and this is certainly possible; but the etymology of the word employed seems rather to point to an ordinary staff or walking stick. Egyptians of rank usually carried long batons; and one suggestion is that the rod of Moses was “that which he had been accustomed to carry as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.”

But even if this was still in his possession after forty years of exile, he is not likely to have taken it with him when he went shepherding. Probably the “rod” was a common staff, such as a shepherd of eighty years old might need for support.

A serpent. — The word used here (nakhash) is a generic one for a snake of any kind and tells us nothing as to the species. A different word (tannin) is used in Exodus 7:10, while nakhash recurs in Exodus 7:15. Tannin, like nakhash, is a generic term.

And Moses fled from before it — It was natural for Moses to remember his alarm and record it. Any later writer would have passed over so small a circumstance. (See the Introduction, p. 3.)

Take it by the tail.—Those who venture to handle poisonous snakes, like the modern Egyptians and the inhabitants of the coast of Barbary, generally take hold of them by the neck, in which case they are unable to bite. To test the faith and courage of Moses, the command is given to him to take hold of this serpent by the tail.

He put forth his hand.—Faith triumphed over instinct. Moses had fled from the snake when first he saw it (Exodus 4:3). Now he is daring enough to stoop down, put his hand on the creature’s tail, and so lift it up.

It became a rod.—Its real nature returned to it. Once more it was, not a stiffened serpent, but an actual staff, or walking-stick.

That they may believe ... — These are God’s words to Moses, in continuation of those which form the first portion of the preceding verse. The clause describing the action of Moses in Exodus 4:4 is parenthetic. The words give Divine sanction to the view, so strangely combated recently, that the power of working miracles is given to men, primarily and mainly, for its evidential value to accredit them as God’s messengers. Without the gift of miracles, neither would Moses have persuaded the Israelites, nor would the Apostles have converted the world.