Exodus 17 · Parashat Beshalach

And all the congregation of the children of Yisra᾽el journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, by their stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Refidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

Wherefore the people did strive with Moshe, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moshe said to them, Why do you strive with me? why do you tempt the Lord?

And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moshe, and said, Why is it that thou hast brought us up out of Miżrayim, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

And Moshe cried to the Lord, saying, What shall I do to this people? they are almost ready to stone me.

And the Lord said to Moshe, Pass before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Yisra᾽el; and thy rod, with which thou smotest the river, take in thy hand, and go.

Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Ḥorev; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moshe did so in the sight of the elders of Yisra᾽el.

And he called the name of the place Massa and Meriva, because of the strife of the children of Yisra᾽el, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?

Then came ῾Amaleq, and fought with Yisra᾽el in Refidim.

And Moshe said to Yehoshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with ῾Amaleq: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.

So Yehoshua did as Moshe had said to him, and fought with ῾Amaleq: and Moshe, Aharon and Ḥur went up to the top of the hill.

And it came to pass, when Moshe held up his hand, that Yisra᾽el prevailed: and when he let down his hand, ῾Amaleq prevailed.

But Moshe’s hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aharon and Ḥur supported his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

And Yehoshua harried ῾Amaleq and his people with the edge of the sword.

And the Lord said to Moshe, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Yehoshua: that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of ῾Amaleq from under the heaven.

And Moshe built an altar, and called the name of it Adonay Nissi (the Lord is my Banner:)

for he said, Because the Lord has sworn by his throne that the Lord will have war with ῾Amaleq from generation to generation.