² 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?”^{(A) 3} But the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”^{(B) 4} So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do for this people? They are almost ready to stone me.”^{(C) 5} The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go.^{(D) 6} I will be standing there in front of 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.^{(E) 7} He called the place Massah^[a] and Meribah,^[b] because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”^(F)

The Waters of Meribah

20 The Israelites, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there.^(A)

² Now there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and against Aaron.^{(B) 3} The people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had died when our kindred died before the Lord!^{(C) 4} Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here?^{(D) 5} Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to bring us to this wretched place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” ⁶ Then Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting; they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.^{(E) 7} The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸ “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. Thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them; thus you shall provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.”^(F)

⁹ So Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he had commanded him. ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels; shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”^{(G) 11} Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank.^{(H) 12} But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”^{(I) 13} These are the waters of Meribah,^[a] where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and through which he showed himself to be holy.^(J)