Exodus 4:20

20 Moshe took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Mitzrayim. Moshe took God's rod in his hand.

Exodus 4:20 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 4:20

And Moses took his wife, and his sons
Gershom and Eliezer; by which it appears that he intended to stay in Egypt, and that he believed that God would work deliverance by him: and set them upon an ass:
which though with us a mean creature, yet in those times and countries were rode upon by great personages; and these, as Aben Ezra says, were reckoned in Egypt more honourable than mules. It may be the singular is put for the plural, and that each of them was set upon an ass, with servants to take care of them: and he returned to the land of Egypt;
that is, he set forward to go thither; for before he got thither, various things are related which befell him: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand:
his shepherd's staff, so called, because God ordered him to take it; and besides, he had wrought signs and wonders by it already, and would do many more.

Exodus 4:20 In-Context

18 Moshe went and returned to Yitro his father-in-law, and said to him, "Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Mitzrayim, and see whether they are still alive." Yitro said to Moshe, "Go in shalom."

19 The LORD said to Moshe in Midyan, "Go, return into Mitzrayim; for all the men who sought your life are dead."

20 Moshe took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Mitzrayim. Moshe took God's rod in his hand.

21 The LORD said to Moshe, "When you go back into Mitzrayim, see that you do before Par`oh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.

22 You shall tell Par`oh, 'Thus says the LORD, Yisra'el is my son, my firstborn,