Thus the whole multitude of the children of Israel set out from the desert of Sin according to their stages. It matters little that in the Hebrew the word signifies “journeys,” for by this it is narrated that they did not come immediately from the desert of Sin to Rephidim, but by several intermediate movements or encampments; for, as is evident from Numbers 33, there were two intermediate stations between the desert of Sin and Rephidim.
According to the word of the Lord — the name here is the Tetragrammaton (יהוה, the divine name) — and since God speaks in many ways and by many modes, the manner of speaking in this case was the movement of the pillar itself: by the resting of the pillar God told the people to remain still, and by its movement and journey the pillar told them to move and follow.
They encamped in Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink. And the people contended with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses, angered, said to them, “Why do you contend with me, and why do you test the Lord?” — again the name is the Tetragrammaton.
The people committed here two evils: one of contention against Moses, the other of testing against God, saying (as is explained below), “Is God among us or not?” Therefore Moses, hearing this, rebuked them: “Why do you test the most high God?” For truly they were testing Him by calling into doubt, because of the lack of water, whether God was their ruler, and by demanding knowledge of this doubt as though it ought confirms itself by an experiment of providing water. For they ought, after seeing so many miracles, to have recourse humbly and confidently to God with supplicating prayers that He would give them water.
Therefore the people thirsted there for lack of water and murmured against Moses, saying, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” And Moses cried to the Lord — the name again is the Tetragrammaton — not merely supplicating, but with a cry of the heart, so that it is understood he prayed with his whole soul: “What shall I do with this people? Yet a little more and they will stone me.”
And the Lord said to Moses — the source of being (fons essendi) is here again named as the giver of water — “Go before the people.” According to the Hebrew it reads, “Pass before the face of the people,” that is, go before them. “Take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the river, and go.”
Moses had said, “Yet a little and they will stone me”; God answers, “Do not fear — pass through the midst of the people,” for this is the sense of the Hebrew expression “pass before the faces of the people,” that is, between the faces on this side and that, with the elders accompanying you and with the divine staff taken up.
“Behold, I will stand before you there.” This indicates the place and promises God’s own presence according to an efficacious operation to produce water there, in the manner of one standing ready, as it were, to cause by Moses’ striking that the closed waters be released.
“Upon the rock in Horeb.” According to the Hebrew it reads “upon the rock in Horeb.” Since Horeb is understood as the mountain commonly called Horeb, this rock is to be understood as being in Horeb and not in Rephidim. For Mount Horeb was near the place of Rephidim, as is clear because immediately from Rephidim they went into the wilderness of Sinai.
And indeed, that this rock was somewhat distant the text indicates by narrating that God sent Moses, saying, “Go with the elders through the midst of the people.” And since Moses struck that rock not before the people but before the elders, it is credible that this rock was nearer Mount Horeb than the encampment at Rephidim; but because it was in the territory named from Mount Horeb, it is called “the rock in Horeb.” For not only the mountain itself is called Horeb, but also the surrounding wilderness is denominated from Horeb.
And thus, in my judgment, this passage is to be understood so that water flowed from that rock toward Rephidim for the convenience of Israel — for the works of God are perfect.
And Moses did so before the elders of Israel — not before the people, for the people did not move from the place of the camp, but Moses with the elders alone went to the place shown to him by God.
And he called the name of that place “Testing” and “Contention” (Massah and Meribah), and the reason for both names is added, though in inverted order: “because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tested the Lord,” the name being the Tetragrammaton, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
It matters little whether the Hebrew says “in our midst” or “near us,” for the sense is the same: they speak as of a human ruler, whether the Lord is near them governing and providing.
Note here that this water of testing and contention is not the same as that water called the water of contradiction, in which Moses and Aaron sinned, as is clear from the difference of times. For this occurred at the eleventh station at Rephidim; that other is recorded at the thirty-third station in the desert of Zin at Kadesh. This was before the people went to Sinai; that was after the completion of the tabernacle.
Read Numbers chapter 20 and compare with this passage, taking into account the reckoning written in Numbers chapter 33, and you will find it to be as we have said.
CONTINUE
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