Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters.
Solid rock can be transformed into a pool of standing water, and flint into a flowing fountain.
Geology
25
passages in this field
Show this passage in
The cited passage
What current science says
Rock and water are completely different substances. Rock is primarily composed of silicate minerals (silicon and oxygen), while water is hydrogen and oxygen (H₂O). Turning rock into water would require nuclear-level transmutation — converting silicon atoms into hydrogen and oxygen atoms — which would require a particle accelerator, not a miracle. Springs do emerge from rock when groundwater finds cracks in stone, but that's water flowing through rock, not rock becoming water. The rock stays rock. Always has, always will.
What the text says
This comes from Psalms 114:7-8. 'Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters' — the text claims literal transmutation of stone into liquid water.
Three honest ways to read this passage
-
As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
-
As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
-
As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.