Exodus 17

¹All 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 .

²Therefore 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?

³But 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 ?

⁴So Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with this people ? They are almost ready to stone me.

⁵And 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 .

⁶Behold , 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 .

⁷And 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 ?

⁸Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim .

⁹So 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 .

¹⁰So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek , while Moses , Aaron , and Hur went up to the top of the hill .

¹¹Whenever Moses held up his hand , Israel prevailed , and whenever he lowered his hand , Amalek prevailed .

¹²But 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 .

¹³And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword .

¹⁴Then 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 .

¹⁵And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner ,

¹⁶saying , A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation .