of thy people,
and open to them thy treasure, a fountain of living water, that they may
drink and the murmuration of them may cease. Our Lord said to him then:
Take the rod in thy hand, and thou and Aaron thy brother, assemble and
gather the people and speak ye to the stone, and it shall give out
water. And when the water cometh let all the multitude drink and their
beasts. Moses then took the rod as our Lord bade, and gathered all the
people tofore the stone and said to them: Hear ye rebels and out of
belief; trow ye not that we may give you water out of this stone? And he
lift up his hand and smote between the stone, and water came and flowed
out in the most largest wise, in such wise that the people and beasts
drank their fill. Then said God to Moses and Aaron: Because ye have not
believed me and sanctified my name tofore the children of Israel, and
given to me the laud, but have done this in your name, ye shall not
bring this people into the land that I shall give to them. And therefore
this water was called the water of contradiction, where the children
grudged against God.

Anon after this, by God's commandment, Moses took Aaron upon the hill,
and despoiled him of his vesture, and clothed therewith his son Eleazar,
and made him upperest bishop for his father Aaron. And there Aaron died
in the top of the hill, and Moses descended with Eleazar. And when all
the multitude of people saw that Aaron was dead, they wept and wailed on
him thirty days in every tribe and family.

After this the people went about the land of Edom, and began to wax
weary, and grudged against our Lord and Moses, and said yet: Why hast
thou led us out of the Land of Egypt for to slay us in this desert and
wilderness? Bread faileth us, there is no water, and our souls abhor and
loathe this light meat. For which cause God sent among them
fiery-serpents, which bit and wounded many of them and slew also. Then
they that were hurt came in to Moses and said: We have sinned, for we
have spoken against our Lord and thee; pray for us unto God that he
deliver from us these serpents. Then Moses prayed our Lord for the
people. And our Lord said to him: Make a serpent of brass and set it up
for a sign, and whosomever be hurt, and looketh thereon and beholdeth
it, shall live and be whole. Then Moses made a serpent of brass, and set
it up for a sign, and when they that were hurt beheld it they were made
whole.

After this when Moses had showed to them all t