God Provides Water from a Rock^(A)

17 The whole congregation of the Israelis set out from the desert^[a] of Sin, traveling from place to place according to the command^[b] of the Lord. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

² The people quarreled with Moses: “Give us water to drink.”

Moses told them, “Why are you quarreling with me? Why are you testing the Lord?”

³ But the people were thirsty there for water, so they^[c] complained against Moses: “Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

⁴ So Moses cried out to the Lord: “What am I to do with these people? Just a little more and they’ll stone me.”

⁵ Then the Lord told Moses, “Go over in front 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. ⁶ I’ll be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. You are to strike the rock and water will come out of it, so the people can drink.” Moses did this in front of the elders of Israel.

⁷ He named the place Massah^[d] and Meribah,^[e] because the Israelis quarreled and tested the Lord by saying: “Is the Lord really among us or not?”