Exodus 17:1-16
17 And the entire assembly of the sons of Israel proceeded to depart from the wilderness of Sin+ by stages, which they took according to the order* of Jehovah,+ and went camping at Rephʹi·dim.+ But there was no water for the people to drink.
2 And the people fell to quarreling with Moses and saying:+ “Give us water that we may drink.” But Moses said to them: “Why are YOU quarreling with me? Why do YOU keep putting Jehovah to the test?”+
3 And the people went on thirsting there for water, and the people kept murmuring against Moses and saying: “Why is it that you have brought us up out of Egypt to put us and our sons and our* livestock to death by thirst?”+
4 Finally Moses cried out to Jehovah, saying: “What shall I do with this people? A little longer and they will stone me!”+
5 Then Jehovah said to Moses: “Pass in front of the people+ and take with you some of the older men of Israel and your rod with which you struck the Nile River.+ Take it in your hand and you must walk on.
6 Look! I am standing before you there on the rock in Hoʹreb.* And you must strike on the rock, and water must come out of it, and the people must drink it.”+ Subsequently Moses did so under the eyes of the older men of Israel.
7 So he called the name of the place Masʹsah*+ and Merʹi·bah,*+ because of the quarreling of the sons of Israel and because of their putting Jehovah to the test,+ saying: “Is Jehovah in our midst or not?”+
8 And the A·malʹek·ites*+ proceeded to come and fight against Israel in Rephʹi·dim.+
9 At this Moses said to Joshua:*+ “Choose men for us and go out,+ fight against the A·malʹek·ites. Tomorrow I am stationing myself upon the top of the hill, with the rod of the [true] God in my hand.”+
10 Then Joshua did just as Moses had said to him,+ in order to fight against the A·malʹek·ites; and Moses, Aaron and Hur+ went up to the top of the hill.
11 And it occurred that as soon as Moses would lift his hand up, the Israelites proved superior;+ but as soon as he would let down his hand, the A·malʹek·ites proved superior.
12 When the hands of Moses were heavy, then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on this side and the other on that side, so that his hands held steady* until the sun set.
13 Hence Joshua vanquished Amʹa·lek and his people with the edge of the sword.+
14 Jehovah now said to Moses: “Write this as a memorial in the book+ and propound it in Joshua’s ears, ‘I shall completely wipe out the remembrance of Amʹa·lek from under the heavens.’”+
15 And Moses proceeded to build an altar and to call its name Je·hoʹvah-nisʹsi,*
16 saying: “Because a hand is against the throne+ of Jah,+ Jehovah will have war* with Amʹa·lek from generation to generation.”+
Footnotes
^ Lit., “mouth.”
^ “Us . . . our . . . our.” Lit., “me . . . my . . . my,” referring to the “people.”
^ “Horeb.” Here, not the mountain on which the Ten Commandments were given, but the mountainous region around Mount Sinai, otherwise called the wilderness of Sinai.
^ Meaning “Testing; Trial.”
^ Meaning “Quarreling; Strife; Contention.”
^ Or, “Amalek,” in a collective sense.
^ Lit., “Jehoshua,” meaning “Jehovah Is Salvation”; Gr., Ἰησοῦ (I·e·souʹ, “Jesus”).
^ Lit., “hands were steadiness.”
^ “Jehovah-nissi,” meaning “Jehovah Is My Signal [Pole],” by deriving nis·siʹ from nes, “signal pole”; LXX, “Jehovah Is My Refuge,” by deriving nis·siʹ from nus, “to flee for refuge”; Vg, “Jehovah Is My Exaltation,” by deriving nis·siʹ from na·sasʹ, “to hoist; to lift up.”
^ “Because with a secret hand Jehovah wages war,” LXX; Vgc, “Because the hand of Jehovah’s throne, and Jehovah’s war, will be.”
