Xuất Ai Cập Ký 17

Water from the rock

¹The whole community of the Israelites moved on from the wilderness of Sin, traveling in stages as the LORD commanded. They made camp at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. ²The people turned on Moses in a quarrel. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded. Moses answered them, “Why pick a quarrel with me? Why put the LORD to the test?” ³But the people were thirsty there, and they grumbled against Moses. “Why did you ever bring us up out of Egypt?” they said. “Was it to make us die of thirst, with our children and our animals?” ⁴Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I going to do with this people? A little more of this, and they will stone me!” ⁵The LORD told Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people, and bring some of Israel’s elders with you. Take along your staff, the one you struck the Nile with, hold it in your hand, and go. ⁶Look, I will be standing there before you, on the rock at Horeb. You are to strike the rock, and water will pour out of it, and the people will drink.” Moses did so, with the elders of Israel looking on. ⁷He named the place Massah, “testing,” and Meribah, “quarreling,” because there the Israelites quarreled, and there they put the LORD to the test by asking, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

Battle with Amalek

⁸Then the Amalekites came and went to war with Israel at Rephidim. ⁹Moses said to Joshua, “Pick out men for us and go out to do battle with Amalek. Tomorrow I will take my stand on the hilltop, holding the staff of God in my hand.” ¹⁰Joshua did what Moses had told him and fought Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of the hill. ¹¹Whenever Moses held his hand high, Israel prevailed; and whenever he let it sink, Amalek prevailed.^{a 12}Moses’ hands grew heavy, so they got a stone and set it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one of them on each side, and so his hands stayed firm until the sun set. ¹³So Joshua cut down Amalek and its fighting men with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Record this in a scroll to be remembered, and say it over to Joshua: I will wipe out the memory of Amalek completely from under the heavens.” ¹⁵Then Moses built an altar there, and he gave it the name “The LORD Is My Banner.” ¹⁶He said, “A hand is lifted to the throne of the LORD! The LORD will fight Amalek generation after generation.”^b