Exodus 4:20

20 And Moses took his wife and his children, and mounted them on the beasts, and returned to Egypt; and Moses took the rod from God 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 And Moses went and returned to Jothor his father-in-law, and says, I will go and return to my brethren in Egypt, and will see if they are yet living. And Jothor said to Moses, Go in health. And in those days after some time, the king of Egypt died.

19 And the Lord said to Moses in Madiam, Go, depart into Egypt, for all that sought thy life are dead.

20 And Moses took his wife and his children, and mounted them on the beasts, and returned to Egypt; and Moses took the rod from God in his hand.

21 And the Lord said to Moses, When thou goest and returnest to Egypt, see—all the miracles I have put into thine hands. charged thee with, thou shalt work before Pharao: and I will harden his heart, and he shall certainly not send away the people.

22 And thou shalt say to Pharao, These things saith the Lord, Israel my first-born.