² There was no water for the congregation; and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. ³ The people quarreled with Moses, and spoke, saying, “We wish that we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh! ⁴ Why have you brought Yahweh’s assembly into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our animals? ⁵ Why have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.”

⁶ Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and fell on their faces. Yahweh’s glory appeared to them. ⁷ Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸ “Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it pour out its water. You shall bring water to them out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their livestock drink.”

⁹ Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, as he commanded him. ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Shall we bring water out of this rock for you?” ¹¹ Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank.

¹² Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

¹³ These are the waters of Meribah;^[a] because the children of Israel strove with Yahweh, and he was sanctified in them.