Exodus 4:20

20 So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and started back to Egypt. He took with him the walking stick of God.

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 Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, "Let me go back to my people in Egypt. I want to see if they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go! I wish you well."

19 While Moses was still in Midian, the Lord said to him, "Go back to Egypt, because the men who wanted to kill you are dead now."

20 So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and started back to Egypt. He took with him the walking stick of God.

21 The Lord said to Moses, "When you get back to Egypt, do all the miraclesd I have given you the power to do. Show them to the king of Egypt. But I will make the king very stubborn, and he will not let the people go.

22 Then say to the king, 'This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son.