17 All the congregation of the Israelites moved on from the Wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and encamped at Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.

² Therefore, the people contended with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you find fault with me? Why do you tempt the Lord and try His patience?

³ But the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?

⁴ So Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.

⁵ And the Lord said to Moses, Pass on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand the rod with which you smote the river [Nile], and go.

⁶ Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at [Mount] Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.^(A)

⁷ He called the place Massah [proof] and Meribah [contention] because of the faultfinding of the Israelites and because they tempted and tried the patience of the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?

20 And the Israelites, the whole congregation, came into the Wilderness of Zin in the first month. And the people dwelt in Kadesh. Miriam died and was buried there.

² Now there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled together against Moses and Aaron.

³ And the people contended with Moses, and said, Would that we had died when our brethren died [in the plague] before the Lord!^(A)

⁴ And why have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, we and our livestock?

⁵ And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us into this evil place? It is no place of grain or of figs or of vines or of pomegranates. And there is no water to drink.

⁶ Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the Tent of Meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them.

⁷ And the Lord said to Moses,

⁸ Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to give forth its water, and you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their livestock drink.

⁹ So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as He commanded him.

¹⁰ And Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation before the rock and Moses said to them, Hear now, you rebels; must we bring you water out of this rock?

¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the rock ^[a]twice. And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

¹² And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in (rely on, cling to) Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the Israelites, you therefore ^[b]shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.^(B)

¹³ These are the waters of Meribah [strife], where the Israelites contended with the Lord and He showed Himself holy among them.

¹⁶ You shall not tempt and try the Lord your God as you tempted and tried Him in Massah.^(A)