Exodus 17:1–7

Water from the Rock

¹Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by ¹stages from the wilderness of ^aSin, according to the ²command of Yahweh, and they camped at ^bRephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink.

²Therefore the people ^acontended with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “^bWhy do you contend with me? ^cWhy do you test Yahweh?”

³But the people thirsted there for water; and ¹they ^agrumbled against Moses and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to put ²us and ³our children and ^4bour livestock to death with thirst?”

⁴So Moses cried out to Yahweh, saying, “What shall I do to this people? A ^alittle more and they will stone me.”

⁵Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of ^athe elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which ^byou struck the Nile, and go.

⁶“Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at ^aHoreb; and ^byou shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

⁷So he named the place ^1aMassah and ^2bMeribah because of the contending of the sons of Israel, and because they ^ctested Yahweh, saying, “Is Yahweh among us or not?”