² And Yahweh said to him, “What is this in your hand?” And he said, “^(A)A staff.” ³ Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and ^(B)it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. ⁴ And Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—so he stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his ^[a]hand— ⁵ “that ^(C)they may believe that ^(D)Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

No Water for the Congregation

20 Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the ^(A)wilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people stayed at Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there.

^2 (B)Now there was no water for the congregation, ^(C)and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. ^3 (D)The people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, “^(E)If only we had breathed our last ^(F)when our brothers breathed their last before Yahweh! ^4 (G)Why then have you brought the assembly of Yahweh into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die ^[a]here? ⁵ And why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us into this evil place? ^(H)It is not a place of ^[b]grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.” ⁶ Then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and ^(I)fell on their faces. Then the glory of Yahweh appeared to them; ⁷ and Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸ “Take ^(J)the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.”

Moses Strikes the Rock

⁹ So Moses took the rod ^(K)from before Yahweh, just as He had commanded him; ¹⁰ and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “^(L)Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ Then Moses raised high his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and ^(M)water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. ¹² But Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “^(N)Because you did not believe Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” ¹³ Those were the waters of ^[c](O)Meribah ^[d]because the sons of Israel contended with Yahweh, and He proved Himself holy among them.