A reading from the Book of Exodus.

All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages,

according to the commandment of the Lord, encamped at Reffodim.

But there was no water for the people to drink.

Therefore 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?

But 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?

So Moses cried to the Lord,

"'What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.' And the Lord said to Moses,

pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and taking your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horib,

and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.

And Moses did so, and the sight of the elders of Israel,

and he called the name of the place Massa and Maraba,

because of the quarreling of the people of Israel,

and because they tested the

Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not? Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Reffodim.

So Moses said to Joshua, choose for us men and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will

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