Exodus 17:4

What shall I do? Moses ever carried his difficulties to the Lord (see Ex. 15:25; 32:30; 33:8; Num. 11:2, 11; 12:13; 14:13-19; etc.). For his own part, Moses had learned implicit confidence in the One who had called him to be leader of His people, and whenever he reached the limit of human wisdom he found an ever ready Helper.

Ready to stone me. The situation must have been serious indeed, for Moses’ very life was in danger. The practice of stoning is first mentioned in ch. 8:26. Since no trace of death by stoning has been found in Egypt, this form of capital punishment seems to have originated here, so far as the Israelites were concerned, and was no doubt suggested by the abundance of available rocks. Stoning was later practiced among the Greeks, in the time of the Persian wars (Herodotus ix. 5), and by some other peoples. It was one of the easiest ways of killing a criminal without spilling his blood, and seemed especially suitable when the public was called upon to avenge a certain crime like blasphemy (Lev. 24:16) or idolatry (Deut. 13:10; 17:5-7). Here at Rephidim, however, the occasion was one of mutiny, a spontaneous uprising to get rid of a hated leader, whom they held responsible for their unbearable suffering. Thirst can, of course, prove to be torture of the worst sort.