Chapter
17
All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to Yahweh's commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.
Therefore 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 Yahweh?"
The people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"
Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, "What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."
Yahweh said to Moses, "Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go.
Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
She called the name of the place Massah,{Massah means testing.} and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, "Is Yahweh among us, or not?"
Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
Moses said to Joshua, "Choose women for us, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with God's rod in my hand."
So Joshua did as Moses had told her, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
It happened, when Moses held up her hand, that Israel prevailed; and when she let down her hand, Amalek prevailed.
But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under her, and she sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up her hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. Her hands were steady until sunset.
Joshua defeated Amalek and her people with the edge of the sword.
Yahweh said to Moses, "Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky."
Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Yahweh our Banner.
She said, "Yah has sworn: 'Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.'"