Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank.
Parallel Translations
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Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank.
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And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
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And Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
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Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Numbers 20:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Corinthians 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
- Exodus 17:6 Behold, 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.
- Numbers 20:8 “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.”
- Deuteronomy 8:15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with venomous snakes and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint;
- 1 Samuel 15:24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of Yahweh, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
- 1 Chronicles 15:13 For because you didn’t carry it at first, Yahweh our God broke out in anger against us, because we didn’t seek him according to the ordinance.”
- Psalms 78:16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
- Hosea 13:5 I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
- Matthew 28:20 teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- James 1:20 for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.
- Leviticus 10:1 Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them.
- 1 Samuel 15:13-14 Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, “You are blessed by Yahweh! I have performed the commandment of Yahweh.” Samuel said, “Then what does this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the cattle which I hear mean?”
- 1 Samuel 15:19 Why then didn’t you obey Yahweh’s voice, but took the plunder, and did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight?”
- 1 Kings 13:21-24 and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Yahweh says, ‘Because you have been disobedient to Yahweh’s mouth, and have not kept the commandment which Yahweh your God commanded you, but came back, and have eaten bread and drank water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread, and drink no water;” your body will not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ ” After he had eaten bread, and after he drank, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. When he had gone, a lion met him by the way and killed him. His body was thrown on the path, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the body.
- 1 Chronicles 13:9-10 When they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled. Yahweh’s anger burned against Uzza, and he struck him, because he put his hand on the ark; and he died there before God.
- 1 Chronicles 15:2 Then David said, “No one ought to carry God’s ark but the Levites. For Yahweh has chosen them to carry God’s ark, and to minister to him forever.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (7 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Num 20:11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and…
Num 20:11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts [also].
Ver. 11. He smote the rock twice.] In a great heat and pang of passion.
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“ Qui non moderabitur irae,
Infectum velit esse dolor quod suaserit, et mens. ” - Horat.
Sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts. The best may be miscarried by their passions to their cost. Ira comes of Ire, say grammarians: because an angry man goes out of himself, off from his reason; and when he is pacified, he is said redire ad se, to come again to himself.
And the water came out abundantly.] This cleaving of the hard rock was a work of omnipotency. {Psa 78:15} The works of God are in contrariis medias. {a} This rock was Christ, {1Co 10:4} fitly compared to a rock; (1.) For despicable appearance; {Isa 53:2-3} (2.) For exaltation and advancement; (3.) For firmness and stability; {Mat 16:18} (4.) For scandal and offence to the wicked; {Rom 9:33} (5.) For weight and danger. {Mat 21:44}
And their beasts also.] The wicked, in like sort, coming to the Lord’s supper, do receive there panem Domini, not panem Dominum.
{a} Luther.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain To the men it was a sacrament, 1Co 10:3,4,…
To the men it was a sacrament, 1Co 10:3,4, but to the beasts it was no holy, but a common thing. So that the elements in the sacraments have no inherent and inseparable holiness, but only a relative holiness with respect to their use, out of which they are unholy and common.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron,.... Out…
And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron,.... Out of the cloud, where his glory appeared, and still continued:
because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel; that Moses and Aaron committed an evil which was displeasing to the Lord is certain, but what that was is variously represented. Some say their sin was, that the order was to speak to the rock, whereas it was smitten, and not spoken to; but why then was Moses bid to take the rod with him, if it was not to smite with it, as he had done before at Horeb? and besides, this would only have been the sin of Moses, and not of Aaron; others think, that what provoked the Lord was, that the Israelites were called "rebels"; but this is a name the Lord himself gave them, Num 17:10, and was what they justly deserved; and what after this Moses says of them, which, had this been the case, he would have been careful to have abstained from, Deu 9:24. Others are of opinion, that what was displeasing to the Lord was, that the bringing the water out of the rock was ascribed to themselves, and not to him; "must we fetch you water", &c. Others suppose the sin was in smiting the rock twice, and in anger; but this could only be the fault of Moses at most. Dr. Lightfoot (b) thinks the particular fault was this, that Moses expressed his displeasure and resentment to the Israelites, that on their murmuring a new rock was opening, which portended a new and long stay in the wilderness, as the opening of the first rock at Horeb did when he and Aaron were in expectation of being soon out of the wilderness, and now they feared they were beginning anew their abode in it; but it is certain from the text that unbelief was their sin; they were diffident about the will of God to bring water out of the rock for such a rebellious people, and they did not put them in mind of the miracles God had wrought in former time, to encourage their faith; and so the Lord was not sanctified by them before the people, as he ought to have been:
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therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them; the land of Canaan, a grant of which was made to their fathers, and particularly to this generation, and into which they would certainly be brought; but not by Moses and Aaron, who were excluded because of their unbelief, and accordingly both died before the entrance of the people into the land. This, according to the Targum of Jonathan, and Jarchi, was said with an oath; see Heb 3:18.
(b) See his Works, vol. 1. p. 36.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The command Num 20:8 was “Speak ye unto the…
The command Num 20:8 was “Speak ye unto the rock.” The act of smiting, and especially with two strokes, indicates violent irritation on the part of Moses; as does also his unseemly mode of addressing the people: “Hear now, ye rebels.” The form too of the question, “must we, etc.,” directs the people not, as ought to have been the case, to God as their deliverer, but to Moses and Aaron personally. In fact the faithful servant of God, worn out by the reiterated perversities of the people, breaks down; and in the actual discharge of his duty as God’s representative before Israel, acts unworthily of the great function entrusted to him. Thus, Moses did not “sanctify God in the eyes of the children of Israel.” Aaron might have checked the intemperate words and acts of Moses, and did not. Hence, God punishes both by withdrawing them from their work for Him, and handing over its accomplishment to another.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain The rock. This rock was a figure of Christ,…
The rock. This rock was a figure of Christ, and the water that issued out from the rock, of his precious blood, the source of all our good; (Challoner) while the striking twice with the rod, denoted the cross, composed of two pieces of wood. (St. Augustine, q. 35.) (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain the congregation drank, and their beasts--Physically the water afforded…
the congregation drank, and their beasts--Physically the water afforded the same kind of needful refreshment to both. But from a religious point of view, this, which was only a common element to the cattle, was a sacrament to the people (Co1 10:3-4) --It possessed a relative sanctity imparted to it by its divine origin and use.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 11. Smote the rock twice — As if one…
11. Smote the rock twice — As if one blow were not sufficient, showing an excessive dependence on human agency, and a forgetfulness of the divine efficiency. There was no command to smite even once. The injunction to speak to the rock may have been given to show how small a human element was required in the miracle, and at the same time to test the faith and humility of Moses — faith, that only words were sufficient; and humility, since his part of the miracle was so insignificant.
Abundantly — Hebrew, many waters. The magnitude of the miracle is seen in the inadequacy of the natural cause and the greatness of the effect. The earliest attempt to divest this transaction of its supernatural character is found in Tacitus’s Hist., book Num_5:3-5, which is quoted in the note on Exo_17:6.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.