Water from the rock at Rephidim, Massah and Meribah

• Exodus 17:1–7: at Rephidim, with no water to drink, the people quarrel with Moses; he strikes the rock in the sight of the elders, water comes out, and the place is called Massah and Meribah.
  Source evidence (1)

  AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.

  • EXO 17:1–7, engwebp

    ¹All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin, starting according to the LORD’s commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.

    ²Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?”

    ³The people were thirsty for water there; so the people murmured against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

    ⁴Moses cried to the LORD, saying, “What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

    ⁵The LORD said to Moses, “Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go.

    ⁶Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

    ⁷He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us, or not?”

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• Numbers 20:1–13: while the people stay in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin they quarrel with Moses for lack of water; he strikes the rock twice, water comes out, and these are called the waters of Meribah. Numbers 20:24 says Moses and Aaron rebelled against the LORD’s word at these waters of Meribah.
  Source evidence (3)

  AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.

  • NUM 20:1, engwebp

    ¹The children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month. The people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died there, and was buried there.

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  • NUM 20:2–13, engwebp

    ²There was no water for the congregation; and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

    ³The people quarreled with Moses, and spoke, saying, “We wish that we had died when our brothers died before the LORD!

    ⁴Why have you brought the LORD’s assembly into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our animals?

    ⁵Why have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.”

    ⁶Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and fell on their faces. The LORD’s glory appeared to them.

    ⁷The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

    ⁸“Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it pour out its water. You shall bring water to them out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their livestock drink.”

    ⁹Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.

    ¹⁰Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Shall we bring water out of this rock for you?”

    ¹¹Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank.

    ¹²The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

    ¹³These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.

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  • NUM 20:22–29, engwebp

    ²²They traveled from Kadesh, and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.

    ²³The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying,

    ²⁴“Aaron shall be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah.

    ²⁵Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor;

    ²⁶and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son. Aaron shall be gathered, and shall die there.”

    ²⁷Moses did as the LORD commanded. They went up onto Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.

    ²⁸Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son. Aaron died there on the top of the mountain, and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

    ²⁹When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.

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• Psalm 81:7 says, “I tested you at the waters of Meribah”; 95:8, “as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness”; 106:32–33, “They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled for their sakes; because they were rebellious against his spirit, he spoke rashly with his lips” (the Korean names Moses at 106:33, WEB “he”).
  Source evidence (3)

  AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.

  • PSA 81:1–16, engwebp

    ¹For the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. By Asaph. Sing aloud to God, our strength! Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob!

    ²Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine, the pleasant lyre with the harp.

    ³Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.

    ⁴For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

    ⁵He appointed it in Joseph for a covenant, when he went out over the land of Egypt, I heard a language that I didn’t know.

    ⁶“I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket.

    ⁷You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah.” Selah.

    ⁸“Hear, my people, and I will testify to you, Israel, if you would listen to me!

    ⁹There shall be no strange god in you, neither shall you worship any foreign god.

    ¹⁰I am the LORD, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

    ¹¹But my people didn’t listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me.

    ¹²So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.

    ¹³Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!

    ¹⁴I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their adversaries.

    ¹⁵The haters of the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.

    ¹⁶But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock.”

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  • PSA 95:1–11, engwebp

    ¹Oh come, let’s sing to the LORD. Let’s shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!

    ²Let’s come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let’s extol him with songs!

    ³For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods.

    ⁴In his hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the mountains are also his.

    ⁵The sea is his, and he made it. His hands formed the dry land.

    ⁶Oh come, let’s worship and bow down. Let’s kneel before the LORD, our Maker,

    ⁷for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice!

    ⁸Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

    ⁹when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work.

    ¹⁰Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “They are a people who err in their heart. They have not known my ways.”

    ¹¹Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They won’t enter into my rest.”

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  • PSA 106:24–33, engwebp

    ²⁴Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn’t believe his word,

    ²⁵but murmured in their tents, and didn’t listen to the LORD’s voice.

    ²⁶Therefore he swore to them that he would overthrow them in the wilderness,

    ²⁷that he would overthrow their offspring among the nations, and scatter them in the lands.

    ²⁸They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.

    ²⁹Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them.

    ³⁰Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment, so the plague was stopped.

    ³¹That was credited to him for righteousness, for all generations to come.

    ³²They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled for their sakes;

    ³³because they were rebellious against his spirit, he spoke rashly with his lips.

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Exodus 17:1–7 and Numbers 20:1–13 share the name, the quarrel over water and the water from the rock, but set them in different places. Psalm 95:8 names Meribah with Massah, and 81:7 and 106:32 the waters of Meribah, without saying where. This collection records Rephidim and the waters of Meribah (Kadesh) separately, gives the Psalms’ Meribah and Massah to Rephidim and their waters of Meribah to the waters of Meribah (Kadesh) by their names, and does not decide whether these records point to the same place or the same event.