Exodus 4:2

4:2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” ¹ 

Exodus 4:17

4:17 You will also take in your hand this staff, with which you will do the signs.” ² 

Exodus 17:9

17:9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our ³  men and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.”

Numbers 20:8-9

20:8 “Take the staff and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and then speak ⁴  to the rock before their eyes. It will pour forth ⁵  its water, and you will bring water out of the rock for them, and so you will give the community and their beasts water to drink.”

20:9 So Moses took the staff from before the Lord, just as he commanded him.

¹ tn Or “rod” (KJV, ASV); NCV, CEV “walking stick”; NLT “shepherd’s staff.”

² sn Mention of the staff makes an appropriate ending to the section, for God’s power (represented by the staff) will work through Moses. The applicable point that this whole section is making could be worded this way: The servants of God who sense their inadequacy must demonstrate the power of God as their sufficiency.

³ tn This could be rendered literally “choose men for us.” But the lamed (ל) preposition probably indicates possession, “our men,” and the fact that Joshua was to choose from Israel, as well as the fact that there is no article on “men,” indicates he was to select some to fight.

⁴ tn The verb is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive, following the two imperatives in the verse. Here is the focus of the instruction for Moses.

⁵ tn Heb “give.” The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, as are the next two in the verse. These are not now equal to the imperatives, but imperfects, showing the results of speaking to the rock: “speak…and it will…and so you will….”