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One traditional story tells that when he was a child, sitting on Pharaoh's knee, Moses took the crown off of Pharaoh's head and put it on. The court magicians took this as a bad sign and demanded that he be tested: they put a brazier full of gold and a brazier full of hot coals before him to see which he would take. If Moses took the gold, he would have to be killed. An angel guided Moses's hand to the coal, and he put it into his mouth, leaving him with a life-long speech impediment (Ex. 4:10).

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In order to ascertain whether or not the baby Moses was destined to be this future leader of the Jewish people, the Egyptians devised a test. They placed burning hot coals in one dish and jewels in a second dish. If Moses were to reach for the jewels, the Egyptians reasoned this to be a sign that he was a threat to the kingdom and should be killed immediately. When Moses in fact reached for the jewels, Hashem sent an angel to conceal the fact that Moses was the future leader of the Jewish people, and the angel pushed Moses' hand towards the hot coals instead. The angel not only caused the baby Moses to choose the hot coals, but Moses also placed it to his lips. As a result, he developed a speech impediment.

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Moses said to the LORD , "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.

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Originally posted by clarebear:
I didn't find this coal story in there. There still is that 40 year limbo which nobody seems to know about. I did see a lot of references to Moses using his speech impediment as an excuse for various things.