Exodus 17:3-6

3 Therefore the people thirsted there for the scarceness of water, and they grouched against Moses, and said, Why madest thou us to go out of Egypt, (for) to slay us, and our free children, and our beasts, for thirst? (And so the people thirsted there for the scarceness of water, and they grumbled against Moses, and said, Why hast thou made us to go out of Egypt, in order to kill us, and our children, and our beasts, with thirst?)

4 Forsooth Moses cried to the Lord, and said, What shall I do to this people? yet a little, and it shall stone me (What shall I do with these people? very soon they shall all stone me!).

5 The Lord said to Moses, Go thou before the people, and take with thee of the elder men of Israel, and take in thine hand the rod, with the which thou hast smitten the flood, and go; (The Lord said to Moses, Go thou before the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with thee, and take in thy hand the staff with which thou struck the River, and go;)

6 lo! I shall stand there before thee, above the stone of Horeb, and thou shalt smite the stone, and water shall go out thereof, that the people drink. Moses did so before the elder men of Israel; (lo! I shall stand there before thee, by the rock at Mount Sinai, and thou shalt strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and then the people shall have something to drink. Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel;)

Exodus 17:3-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 17

The children of Israel coming to Rephidim, want water, and chide with Moses about it, who, crying to the Lord, is bid to smite the rock, from whence came water for them, and he named the place from their contention with him, Ex 17:1-7 at this place Amalek came and fought with Israel, who, through the prayer of Moses, signified by the holding up of his hands, and by the sword of Joshua, was vanquished, Ex 17:8-13, for the remembrance of which it was ordered to be recorded in a book, and an altar was built with this inscription on it, "Jehovahnissi": it being the will of God that Amalek should be fought with in every generation until utterly destroyed, Ex 17:14-16.