What Does Exodus 4:20 Mean?

So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a Donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand. The departure summary in verse 20 is spare but complete: wife, sons, donkey, staff. The family going down to Egypt and the staff going with them are the two most important elements. Moses has been given this mission not as an isolated individual but as a man with a household; his wife Zipporah and their sons (Gershom, at least, from Exodus 2:22; possibly Eliezer as well, from Exodus 18:4) are part of the journey.

The staff is now called "the staff of God" (matteh ha-elohim), having received its new name at the burning bush. Moses takes it in his hand for the first time in its new identity. This is the staff that has already been a Serpent and been restored; Moses carries it now with knowledge of what it is capable of. The hand that holds the staff of God knows from direct experience what that staff can become under divine command. The physical holding of the staff at departure is Moses' visible commitment: he is going, with the instrument of the signs, to do what he has been sent to do.

The image of Moses with his family on a donkey, the staff of God in his hand, heading toward the most powerful empire in the ancient world with a commission from the burning bush, is one of the most quietly dramatic departure images in the biblical narrative. There is no army, no political backing, no institutional support, no recognized authority. There is a man with a family, a stick, and a God. The disproportion between the forces Moses is being sent to confront and the resources visible in verse 20 is the point: what will happen in Egypt will not be explicable by reference to Moses' human capacity.