And he said, of course, means “The LORD said” (Good News Translation). Cast it on the ground is a command to “Throw it on the ground” (Good News Translation). The next clause need not repeat the same words and may even be changed to a temporal clause as in Good News Translation: “When Moses threw it down.”

And it became a serpent means that the rod “was changed into a serpent” (New American Bible). The word for serpent is the common generic term for snake and does not indicate what kind of snake. A less common term is used in 7.9. (See the comment there.) However, since Moses recoiled from the reptile, this probably indicates that he recognized it as a poisonous kind of snake. And Moses fled from it should not be taken too literally; even Good News Translation‘s “he ran away from it” may be misleading. Better perhaps is “he drew back from it” (Jerusalem Bible), or he “recoiled from it” (New Jerusalem Bible), or he “shied away from it” (New American Bible).

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .