Therefore 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 Yahweh?”
World English Bible
Exodus 17:2
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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WEB World English Bible Public Domain ✓ - Modern English
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- TCENT Text-Critical English New Testament A modern reasoned-eclectic New Testament (2022) · CC BY 4.0
- F35 Family 35 New Testament Wilbur Pickering's Byzantine-priority New Testament, with text-critical commentary notes · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
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Where did Moses get water from a rock?
Exodus 17:1-7 locates the water-from-rock miracle at Rephidim in the wilderness of Sin ("the rock in Horeb"), with Moses naming the place Massah and Meribah. Numbers 20:1-8 (with Num 27:14 and Deut 32:51 confirming) locates it at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, at the waters of "Meribah-Kadesh."
Critical scholarship: Genuinely disputed among scholars.
Geography
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
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Can God be tempted?
James 1:13 says God cannot be tempted with evil (*apeirastos kakōn*). But Deuteronomy 6:16, Exodus 17:2, Matthew 4:7, Luke 4:12, and Acts 15:10 all assume God can be tempted — the command 'do not tempt God' presupposes the act is possible.
Critical scholarship: Leans toward a genuine contradiction.
Theology
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The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
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This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Exodus 17:2 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/exodus/17/2?version=WEB (retrieved 26 August 2026).