Exodus 15-18

New King James Version

The Song of Moses^(A)

15 Then ^(B)Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying:

¹⁹ For the ^(AP)horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea, and ^(AQ)the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.

The Song of Miriam^(AR)

²⁰ Then Miriam ^(AS)the prophetess, ^(AT)the sister of Aaron, ^(AU)took the timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her ^(AV)with timbrels and with dances. ²¹ And Miriam ^(AW)answered them:

Bitter Waters Made Sweet

²² So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of ^(AY)Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no ^(AZ)water. ²³ Now when they came to ^(BA)Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called ^[d]Marah. ²⁴ And the people ^(BB)complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” ²⁵ So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. ^(BC)When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

There He ^(BD)made a statute and an ^[e]ordinance for them, and there ^(BE)He tested them, ²⁶ and said, ^(BF)“If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the ^(BG)diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord ^(BH)who heals you.”

^27 (BI)Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.

Bread from Heaven

16 And they ^(BJ)journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and ^(BK)Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. ² Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel ^(BL)complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. ³ And the children of Israel said to them, ^(BM)“Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, ^(BN)when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain ^(BO)bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather ^[f]a certain quota every day, that I may ^(BP)test them, whether they will ^(BQ)walk in My law or not. ⁵ And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and ^(BR)it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”

⁶ Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, ^(BS)“At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. ⁷ And in the morning you shall see ^(BT)the glory of the Lord; for He ^(BU)hears your complaints against the Lord. But ^(BV)what are we, that you complain against us?” ⁸ Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but ^(BW)against the Lord.”

⁹ Then Moses spoke to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ^(BX)‘Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your complaints.’ ” ¹⁰ Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord ^(BY)appeared in the cloud.

¹¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^12 (BZ)“I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ^(CA)‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and ^(CB)in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”

¹³ So it was that ^(CC)quail came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning ^(CD)the dew lay all around the camp. ¹⁴ And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was ^(CE)a small round ^(CF)substance, as fine as frost on the ground. ¹⁵ So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.

And Moses said to them, ^(CG)“This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. ¹⁶ This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it ^(CH)according to each one’s need, one ^(CI)omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.’ ”

¹⁷ Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less. ¹⁸ So when they measured it by omers, ^(CJ)he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need. ¹⁹ And Moses said, “Let no one ^(CK)leave any of it till morning.” ²⁰ Notwithstanding they did not ^[g]heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. ²¹ So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted.

²² And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. ²³ Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is ^(CL)a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.’ ” ²⁴ So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not ^(CM)stink, nor were there any worms in it. ²⁵ Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. ^26 (CN)Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”

²⁷ Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. ²⁸ And the Lord said to Moses, “How long ^(CO)do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? ²⁹ See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” ³⁰ So the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹ And the house of Israel called its name ^[h]Manna. And ^(CP)it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

³² Then Moses said, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it, to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’ ” ³³ And Moses said to Aaron, ^(CQ)“Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations.” ³⁴ As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up ^(CR)before the Testimony, to be kept. ³⁵ And the children of Israel ^(CS)ate manna ^(CT)forty years, ^(CU)until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. ³⁶ Now an omer is one-tenth of an ephah.

Water from the Rock^(CV)

17 Then ^(CW)all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of ^(CX)Sin, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to ^(CY)drink. ^2 (CZ)Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us water, that we may drink.”

So Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you ^(DA)tempt the Lord?”

³ And the people thirsted there for water, and the people ^(DB)complained against Moses, and said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our ^(DC)livestock with thirst?”

⁴ So Moses ^(DD)cried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to ^(DE)stone^[i] me!”

⁵ And the Lord said to Moses, ^(DF)“Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which ^(DG)you struck the river, and go. ^6 (DH)Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you 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. ⁷ So he called the name of the place ^(DI)Massah^[j] and ^[k]Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they ^[l]tempted the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Victory over the Amalekites^(DJ)

^8 (DK)Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. ⁹ And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with ^(DL)the rod of God in my hand.” ¹⁰ So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. ¹¹ And so it was, when Moses ^(DM)held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. ¹² But Moses’ hands became ^[m]heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. ¹³ So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(DN)“Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that ^(DO)I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” ¹⁵ And Moses built an altar and called its name, ^[n]The-Lord-Is-My-Banner; ¹⁶ for he said, “Because ^[o]the Lord has ^(DP)sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

Jethro’s Advice^(DQ)

18 And ^(DR)Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that ^(DS)God had done for Moses and for Israel His people—that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. ² Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took ^(DT)Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, ³ with her ^(DU)two sons, of whom the name of one was ^[p]Gershom (for he said, ^(DV)“I have been a ^[q]stranger in a foreign land”) ⁴ and the name of the other was ^[r]Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my ^(DW)help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”); ⁵ and Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at ^(DX)the mountain of God. ⁶ Now he had said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her.”

⁷ So Moses ^(DY)went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and ^(DZ)kissed him. And they asked each other about their well-being, and they went into the tent. ⁸ And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and how the Lord had ^(EA)delivered them. ⁹ Then Jethro rejoiced for all the ^(EB)good which the Lord had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. ¹⁰ And Jethro said, ^(EC)“Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. ¹¹ Now I know that the Lord is ^(ED)greater than all the gods; ^(EE)for in the very thing in which they ^[s]behaved ^(EF)proudly, He was above them.” ¹² Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, ^[t]took a burnt ^(EG)offering and other sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel ^(EH)to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

¹³ And so it was, on the next day, that Moses ^(EI)sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. ¹⁴ So when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone ^[u]sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?”

¹⁵ And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because ^(EJ)the people come to me to inquire of God. ¹⁶ When they have ^(EK)a ^[v]difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”

¹⁷ So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. ¹⁸ Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; ^(EL)you are not able to perform it by yourself. ¹⁹ Listen now to my voice; I will give you ^[w]counsel, and God will be with you: Stand ^(EM)before God for the people, so that you may ^(EN)bring the difficulties to God. ²⁰ And you shall ^(EO)teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and ^(EP)the work they must do. ²¹ Moreover you shall select from all the people ^(EQ)able men, such as ^(ER)fear God, ^(ES)men of truth, ^(ET)hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. ²² And let them judge the people at all times. ^(EU)Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for ^(EV)they will bear the burden with you. ²³ If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their ^(EW)place in peace.”

²⁴ So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. ²⁵ And ^(EX)Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. ²⁶ So they judged the people at all times; the ^(EY)hard^[x] cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves.

²⁷ Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and ^(EZ)he went his way to his own land.