The Sapphire Staff Passed Down from Adam to Moses

"And take this staff in your hand" (Exodus 4:17). The staff that was created at twilight was handed to Adam in the Garden of Eden, and Adam handed it to Enoch, and Enoch handed it to Shem, and Shem handed it to Abraham, and Abraham handed it to Isaac, and Isaac handed it to Jacob, and Jacob brought it down to Egypt, and Egypt to Joseph. When Joseph died, all his household goods were scattered and were placed in the palace of Pharaoh. Now Jethro was one of the magicians of Egypt, and he saw the staff and desired it in his heart, and he took it and brought it and planted it in the midst of his garden, and no one could draw near to it, until Moses came to the land of Midian and entered the garden of his house and saw the staff and read the letters that were upon it and stretched out his hand and took it. Jethro saw this and said, "This is the man who is destined to redeem Israel from Egypt." Therefore he gave him Zipporah his daughter as a wife, as it is said, "And Moses consented" (Exodus 2:21). And Moses shepherded and led the flock of Jethro with that staff forty years, and no beast of the field bereaved them, and they were exceedingly fruitful and multiplied; and of them Scripture says, "like a flock of holy ones" (Ezekiel 36:38). "And he led the flock" until he came to Mount Horeb, and there the Holy One, blessed be He, was revealed to him out of the bush. Rav Yehuda bar Ami said: the staff weighed forty se'ah, and it was of sapphire, and the ten plagues were engraved upon it, and by the mnemonic [acronym] DeTzaKh, ADaSh, BeAChaB. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, "This staff will bring the plagues upon him."