Numbers 20:2-13

Evangelical Heritage Version

Water From the Rock

² There was no water for the community, so they assembled together against Moses and Aaron. ³ The people quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! ⁴ Why have you brought the Lord’s assembly into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here? ⁵ Why have you taken us up out of Egypt to bring us into this horrible place? This place does not have grain, figs, vines, or pomegranates. There is no water to drink!”

⁶ Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. They fell facedown. The Glory of the Lord appeared to them. ⁷ The Lord spoke to Moses: ⁸ “Take the staff and assemble the community. You and Aaron, your brother, speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will pour out its water. You will bring water for them from the rock and provide water for the community and their livestock.”

⁹ Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence just as the Lord commanded him. ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels! Must we bring water out of this rock for you?” ¹¹ Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff two times, and a great amount of water gushed out. The congregation and their livestock drank.

¹² Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough to honor me as holy in the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you will not bring this assembly into this land which I have given to them.”

¹³ These are the waters of Meribah,^[a] because there the Israelites quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself to be holy.