Sinai & The Law

For six days you may gather, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, it will not be there.”

Yet on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they did not find anything.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep My commandments and instructions?

Understand that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day He will give you bread for two days. On the seventh day, everyone must stay where he is; no one may leave his place.”

So the people rested on the seventh day.

Now the house of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.

Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Keep an omer of manna for the generations to come, so that they may see the bread I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”

So Moses told Aaron, “Take a jar and fill it with an omer of manna. Then place it before the LORD to be preserved for the generations to come.”

And Aaron placed it in front of the Testimony, to be preserved just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land where they could settle; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

(Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.)

Then the whole congregation of Israel left the Desert of Sin, moving from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

So the people contended with Moses, “Give us water to drink.” “Why do you contend with me?” Moses replied. “Why do you test the LORD?”

But the people thirsted for water there, and they grumbled against Moses: “Why have you brought us out of Egypt—to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What should I do with these people? A little more and they will stone me!”

And the LORD said to Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take along in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

Behold, I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. And when you strike the rock, water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

After this, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.

So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop with the staff of God in my hand.”

Joshua did as Moses had instructed him and fought against the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he lowered them, Amalek prevailed.

When Moses’ hands grew heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur held his hands up, one on each side, so that his hands remained steady until the sun went down.

So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his army with the sword.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua, because I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”