Water from the Rock

17 The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the Lord’s command. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.^{(A) 2} So the people complained to Moses, “Give us water to drink.”

“Why are you complaining to me?” Moses replied to them. “Why are you testing^(B) the Lord?”

³ But the people thirsted there for water, and grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you ever bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”^(C)

⁴ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What should I do with these people? In a little while they will stone me!”^(D)

⁵ The Lord answered Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. ⁶ I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water^(E) will come out of it and the people will drink.” Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

The Life-Giving River

47 Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple and there was water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the temple faced east. The water was coming down from under the south side of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar.^{(A) 2} Next he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate that faced east; there the water was trickling from the south side. ³ As the man went out east with a measuring line in his hand,^(B) he measured off a third of a mile^[a] and led me through the water. It came up to my ankles. ⁴ Then he measured off a third of a mile^[b] and led me through the water. It came up to my knees. He measured off another third of a mile^[c] and led me through the water. It came up to my waist. ⁵ Again he measured off a third of a mile^[d], and it was a river that I could not cross on foot. For the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be crossed on foot.

⁶ He asked me, “Do you see this, son of man?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. ⁷ When I had returned, I saw a very large number of trees along both sides of the riverbank.^{(C) 8} He said to me, “This water flows out to the eastern region and goes down to the Arabah. When it enters the sea, the sea of foul water,^[e][f] the water of the sea becomes fresh.^{(D) 9} Every kind of living creature that swarms will live wherever the river flows,^[g] and there will be a huge number of fish because this water goes there. Since the water will become fresh, there will be life everywhere the river goes. ¹⁰ Fishermen will stand beside it from En-gedi to En-eglaim.^[h] These will become places where nets are spread out to dry. Their fish will consist of many different kinds, like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea.^{(E) 11} Yet its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be left for salt.

⁸ On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem,^(A) half of it toward the eastern sea^[a] and the other half toward the western sea,^[b] in summer and winter alike.

The Source of Life

22 Then he showed me the river^[a] of living water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb^{(A) 2} down the middle of the broad street of the city. The tree of life^[b] was on both sides of the river, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month.^(B) The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations,