⁴ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone^(A) me.”

⁵ The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff^(B) with which you struck the Nile,^(C) and go. ⁶ I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb.^(D) Strike^(E) the rock, and water^(F) will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

¹¹ As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning,^(A) but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. ¹² When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.^{(B) 13} So Joshua overcame the Amalekite^(C) army with the sword.

¹¹ But Moses sought the favor^(A) of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?^{(B) 12} Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’?^(C) Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster^(D) on your people. ¹³ Remember^(E) your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self:^(F) ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars^(G) in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land^(H) I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” ¹⁴ Then the Lord relented^(I) and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.