After this the people removed from thence and came into the desert of Sin; and then Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron, died, and was buried in the same place.  Then the people lacked water and came and grudged against Moses, and yet wished they had abided in Egypt.  Then Moses and Aaron entered into the Tabernacle and fell down to the ground low, and prayed unto our Lord, saying:  Lord God, hear the clamor 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.