CHAPTER 17
1 Therefore all the multitude of the sons of Israel went forth from the desert of Sin, by their dwellings, by the word of the Lord, and setted tents in Rephidim, where was no water to the people to drink.
2 Which people chided against Moses, and said, Give water to us, that we drink. To whom Moses answered, What chide ye against me, and why tempt ye the Lord?
3 Therefore the people thirsted there for the scarceness of water, and they grutched against Moses, and said, Why madest thou us to go out of Egypt, to slay us, and our free children, and our beasts, for 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.
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;
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;
7 and he called the name of that place Temptation, for the chiding of the sons of Israel, and for they tempted the Lord, and said, Whether the Lord is in us, or nay?
8 Forsooth Amalek came, and fought against Israel in Rephidim.
9 And Moses said to Joshua, Choose thou men, and go out, and fight tomorrow against the men of Amalek; lo! I shall stand in the top of the hill, and I shall have the rod of God in mine hand.
10 Joshua did as Moses spake, and he fought against Amalek. Forsooth Moses, and Aaron, and Hur went up on the top of the hill;
11 and when Moses raised [up] his hands, Israel overcame; forsooth if he let them down a little, Amalek over-came.
12 Soothly Moses’ hands were made heavy, therefore they took a stone, and put under him, on which stone he sat. Forsooth Aaron and Hur sustained his hands, on ever either side; and it was done, that his hands were not made weary, till to the going down of the sun.
13 And Joshua drove away Amalek and his people, in the mouth of [the] sword, that is, by the sharpness of the sword, he killed all the strong men of Amalek in that battle.
14 Forsooth the Lord said to Moses, Write thou this in a book, for mind, and take in the ears of Joshua; for I shall do away the mind of Amalek from under heaven.
15 And Moses builded an altar, and called the name thereof, The Lord is mine enhancer,
16 and he said, For it is the hand of the Lord alone, and the battle of God shall be against Amalek, from generation into generation.