Water from the Rock

1 ^wAll 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. 2 ^xTherefore 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 ^ytest the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and ^zthe 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?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready ^ato stone me.” 5 And 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 ^bwhich you struck the Nile, and go. 6 ^cBehold, 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. 7 And he called the name of the place ^dMassah¹ and ^eMeribah,² because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem ⁿto have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because ^othey were not united by faith with those who listened.¹ 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: ^q“And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said,

6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news ^sfailed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God² would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also ^urested from his works as God did from his.

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so ^vthat no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For ^wthe word of God is living and ^xactive, ^ysharper than any ^ztwo-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and ^adiscerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And ^bno creature is hidden from his sight, but all are ^cnaked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.