Exodus 17 KJV
Water from the Rock
Exodus Chapter 17: Water from the Rock
The rod that strikes the rock at Horeb is explicitly called 'the rod of God,' the same instrument previously used to turn the Nile to blood and divide the sea, linking the water miracle to the larger Exodus pattern of creation reversal and divine weaponization of nature.
1nd all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.cf.
2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?cf.
3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?cf.
4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.cf.
5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.cf.
6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.cf.
7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?cf.
8 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
9 And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
10 So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
12 But Mosesโ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
13 And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:
16 For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
โ โ arrow keys to navigate chapters ยท spacebar to play/pause audio
Did You Know?
The rod that strikes the rock at Horeb is explicitly called 'the rod of God,' the same instrument previously used to turn the Nile to blood and divide the sea, linking the water miracle to the larger Exodus pattern of creation reversal and divine weaponization of nature.
Moses' raised hands during the Amalek battle require physical support from Aaron and Hur, presenting the surprising image of prophetic intercession as a cooperative, embodied act that fails when one man attempts it alone.
The Amalekites specifically attack 'the hindmost... feeble... that were feeble behind,' a detail that later becomes the legal justification in Deuteronomy 25 for their total erasure from memory.
The dual naming of the site as Massah and Meribah is the first time a single location receives two distinct etiological labels in Exodus, encoding both divine testing of Israel and Israel's testing of God within the same geographic marker.
Jehovah-nissi is the only altar in the Pentateuch whose name is framed as a military banner rather than a memorial of provision or covenant, shifting emphasis from the preceding water miracle to the ongoing war with Amalek.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin โ In the succinct annals of this book, those places only are selected for particular notice by the inspired historian, wโฆ
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Exodus 17 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: The people murmur for water; Attack of amalek.
- 1
- the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin โ In the succinct annals of this book, those places only are selected for particular notice by the inspired historian, which were scenes memorable for their happy or painful interest in the history of the Israelites. A more detailed itinerary is given in the later books of Moses, and we find that here two stations are omitted (Nu 33:1-56). according to the commandment of the Lord, &c. โ not given in oracular response, nor a vision of the night, but indicated by the movement of the cloudy pillar. The same phraseology occurs elsewhere (Nu 9:18, 19). pitched in Rephidim โ now believed, on good grounds, to be Wady Feiran, which is exactly a day's march from Mount Sinai, and at the entrance of the Horeb district. It is a long circuitous defile about forty feet in breadth, with perpendicular granite rocks on both sides. The wilderness of Sin through which they approached to this valley is very barren, has an extremely dry and thirsty aspect, little or no water, scarcely even a dwarfish shrub to be seen, and the only shelter to the panting pilgrims is under the shadow of the great overhanging cliffs.
- 2,3
- the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink, &c. โ The want of water was a privation, the severity of which we cannot estimate, and it was a great trial to the Israelites, but their conduct on this new occasion was outrageous; it amounted even to "a tempting of the Lord." It was an opposition to His minister, a distrust of His care, an indifference to His kindness, an unbelief in His providence, a trying of His patience and fatherly forbearance.
Read all 10 notes on Exodus 17 โ