Exodus 4:6

6 The LORD said to him, "Put your hand inside your shirt." So Moses did this, and when he took his hand out, it had a skin disease. It looked as [flaky as] snow.

Exodus 4:6 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 4:6

And the Lord said furthermore unto him
Continued his discourse, and gave him another sign: put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom;
within his coat, under that part of the garment next to his breast: and when he took it out, behold, his hand [was] leprous as snow;
that is, white as snow, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, through the leprosy that was upon it; it was a leprosy of the white sort, and which is reckoned the worst and most difficult to be cured, see ( Leviticus 13:3 Leviticus 13:4 ) ( Numbers 12:10 ) . It is highly probable that this gave rise to the story told by several Heathen writers, as Manetho ^F13, Lysimachus {n}, Trogus ^F15, and Tacitus ^F16, that Moses and the Israelites were drove out of Egypt by the advice of an oracle, because they had the leprosy, itch, and other impure diseases upon them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Apud Joseph. contr. Apion. l. 1. c. 26.
F14 Apud. ib. c. 34.
F15 Justin e Trogo, l. 36. c. 2.
F16 Hist. l. 5. c. 3.

Exodus 4:6 In-Context

4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Reach out and grab the snake by its tail." He reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a staff as he held it.

5 [The LORD explained,] "This is to convince the people that the LORD God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, appeared to you."

6 The LORD said to him, "Put your hand inside your shirt." So Moses did this, and when he took his hand out, it had a skin disease. It looked as [flaky as] snow.

7 "Now put your hand back inside your shirt," the LORD said. Moses put it back, and when he took it out this time, it was healthy again like the rest of his body.

8 [Then the LORD said,] "If they won't believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second.