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Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
And the people chided with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
And why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?
And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto 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.
And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?
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.
And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

20:8 Take the rod. This was not the rod of judgment, with which Moses had smitten the rock almost forty years before. Water from that rock had followed them as a perennially flowing stream through all their wilderness wanderings. The rod mentioned here was Aaron’s rod that budded (Numbers 17:10; 20:9), implying resurrection instead of judgment.


20:8 speak ye unto the rock. This rock was a high craggy rock (in Hebrew cela), in contrast to the small rock (in Hebrew tsur), which had been smitten before (Exodus 17:6).


20:11 he smote the rock. Once again the Lord miraculously provided water out of the rock for the horde of Israelites (see note on Exodus 17:6 for the first instance). However, this time Moses disobeyed God by smiting the rock twice instead of speaking to it once. Worse than this, he was now so used to having the Lord perform miracles for the people through him that he took the credit (“must we fetch you water”–Numbers 20:10). It was for this reason that God would not allow him to cross the Jordan. “Ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Numbers 20:12).


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