Shared Word Translation
Exodus 17
Water from the Rock
All the congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, as the LORD commanded, and camped at Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. So the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. See, I will be standing there before you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”