All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the
wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the
LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people
to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give
us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel
with me? Why do you test the LORD?” But the people thirsted there
for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did
you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our
livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the LORD, “What shall I
do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the
LORD said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you
some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with
which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you
there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and
water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses
did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the
name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of
the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying,
“Is the LORD among us or not?”
Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses
said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with
Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff
of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought
with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the
hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and
whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands
grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat
on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and
the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the
going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people
with the sword.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book
and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out
the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar
and called the name of it, The LORD Is My Banner, saying, “A hand
upon the throne of the LORD! The LORD will have war with Amalek
from generation to generation.”
