Numbers 20:2-13

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

² Now there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and against Aaron.^{(A) 3} The people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had died when our kindred died before the Lord!^{(B) 4} Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here?^{(C) 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.^{(D) 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.”^(E)

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?”^{(F) 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.^{(G) 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.”^{(H) 13} These are the waters of Meribah,^[a] where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and through which he showed himself to be holy.^(I)