17 Then all the Israelis moved on from Siyn in the wilderness, travelling following Yahweh’s instructions. They camped at Refidim but there was no water for the people to drink.[ref] 2 So the people argued with Mosheh again, saying, “Give us water to drink!”

“Why are you all quarrelling with me?” Mosheh answered. “Why are you all testing Yahweh?”

3 But the people were very thirsty there and they murmured against Mosheh, so he demanded, “Is this why you brought us out of Egypt? To kill me and my sons and my cattle with thirst?” ???

4 Mosheh cried out to Yahweh, asking, “What should I do for these people? It won’t take much more and they’ll stone me.”

5 “Walk on ahead of the people,” Yahweh told Mosheh, “and take some of the Israeli elders with you, and your staff—the one which you struck the river with. Take it in your hand and go. 6 Watch me. I will stand in front of you there on the rock at Horeb (Mt. Sinai). Then you will strike the rock and water will come out of it, and the people will drink.” So Mosheh did that while the Israeli elders watched.

7 Mosheh named that place both ‘Massah’ (which means ‘testing’) and ‘Meribah’ (which means ‘complaining’), because of the conflict among the Israelis and because of how they tested of Yahweh by saying, ‘Is Yahweh among us or not?’