Exodus 17

₁After all the Israelites went out of the Sin Desert, they moved from one place to another place as the Lord told them. They later came to Rephidim and they put up their tents. There was no water for the people to drink. ₂The Israelites became angry and they complained to Moses. They said: ‘Give us water to drink.’

Moses asked them: ‘Why do you accuse me? Do you think the Lord can not help us?’ ₃But the people were thirsty. They accused Moses and said to him: ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Do you want us and our children and our animals to die here because we do not have water?’

₄Moses prayed to the Lord and he asked the Lord to help him. He said: ‘What must I do with these people? They want to kill me with stones.’ ₅The Lord said to Moses: ‘Go before the people and take a few leaders_of_Israel with you. Take your staff that you used to hit the water of the Nile River. ₆I will stand before you on the rock at Sinai. Then you must hit the rock and water will come out of the rock so that the people can drink.’

Moses hit the rock while the leaders_of_Israel were looking. ₇He named the place Massah and Meribah, because the people of Israel accused Moses and they made the Lord angry. They asked: ‘Is the Lord with us or not?’

₈The Amalekites came to Rephidim to make war_against the people of Israel. ₉Moses said to Joshua: ‘Choose some of our men and go and fight against the Amalekites tomorrow. I will stand on top of the hill and I will hold the staff of God in my hand.’

₁₀Joshua did what Moses told him. He went to war_against the Amalekites. Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. ₁₁As long as Moses held his hands up in the air, the people of Israel won. But when he let his hands down, then the Amalekites won. ₁₂When Moses' hands got tired, Aaron and Hur took a stone and put it down for him to sit on. Moses sat on the stone and Aaron and Hur held up his hands. Aaron stood on one side of Moses and Hur stood on his other side. They held up his hands until the sun went down. ₁₃That is how Joshua defeated the Amalekites.

₁₄The Lord said to Moses: ‘You must write these words in a book so that everyone will remember it and you must read it to Joshua. You must write: “The Lord will defeat all the Amalekites and wipe them from the earth.” ’

₁₅Moses built an altar there and he named it ‘The Lord leads me’. ₁₆He said: ‘The Lord rules over all and He has promised that He will always fight against the Amalekites.’