EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XVII. and palace of the bishops of Parat! formerly stood " (Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 41 ). Vers. 1-i.-Tru: SECOND MU1!MUBING l!'OB There was no water, The W ady Feiran is ""ATER. When the Israelites had come to watered ordinarily by a copious stream ; but Rephid.im, which was probably in the Wady at times the brook is dry ( ibid. p. 40, note 3). Feiran, near iu; junction with the W ady Esh- Ver. 2.-The people did ohide. I.e "quarrelled," m.ade open murmurs and.com- Sheikh, complaint arose, not, as at Marab ( eh. plaint-as before frequently (eh. xiv. 11, 12, xv. 23), that there was no drinkable water, xv. 24 ; xvi. 2, 3). Give us water. As but that there was no water at all. Water Moses bad already given them flesh (the had been expected, and consequently no supply quails) and bread (the manna.), so it perhaps had been brought ; but none was found. seemed to the people easy tha.t he should give them such a common thing as water. Stanley Violent murmurs arose, and the people were notices (p. 70) the.t the we.dys suggest tho ready to stone their leader (ver. 4), who idea of water, and make iu; absence the more had, they considered, brought them into the intolerable-they are " 8'X8.Ctly like rivers," difficulty. & nsual, Moses took bis grief to with "torrent bed, e.nd banks, and clefu; in God, and laid it before him, with the result the rock for tributary streams, and e.t times even rushes and shrubs fringing their course " that God gave miraculous relief. Moses was -signs of " water, water everywhere, yet not bidden to take his rod, and go with the elders a drop to drink." Wherefore do ye tempt to a particnhr rock known as " the rock in the Lord t To "tempt the Lord " is to try Horeb" (ver. 6), and there strike the rock, his patience by want of faith, to arouse his and water would flow forth. This be did, and anger, to provoke him to punish us. It was the special sin of the Israelites during the a copious stream welled out, which furnished whole period of their sojourn in the wilder- abundant drink to the whole multitude. In ness. They " tempted and provoked the most remembrance of the murmuring, be called high God" (Ps. lxxviii. 56) ; "provoked him the place Massa.h. (trial) and Meribab (quarrel). to anger with their inventions' (ib. cvi. 29), "murmured in their tenm " (i'b. 25), "pro- Ver. 1.-From the wilderne88 of Sin. See voked him at the see. " (ib. 7), "tempted him the comment on eh. xvi. 1. The sandy coast in the desert" (ib. 14). God's long-suffering, tract (El Murk.a) was probably quitted in lat. notwithstanding all, is simply amazing I 28° 42' nearly, and the Wady Feiran entered Ver. 3.-The people thirsted there for on at im south-western extremity. Two 'D.'!!.!e:-. There is probably no physical e.fflic- stations, Dophk.e.h and Alush, lay between tion comparable to intense thirst. His thirst the Sin wilderness and Rephid.im, as we lee.rn was the only agony which drew from the Son from Nnm. x..xxiii. 12, 13. It is impossible of Man an e.cknowledgment of physical suffer- to locate these places with exactness. After ing, in the words "I thirst." Descriptions of their journeys. The three stages-from Sin thirst in open boats at see. are among the most to Doµh.k.ah, from Dophkah to Alnsh, and painful of the records of afflicted humanity. from Alnsh to Rephid.im-seem to be alluded Thirst in the desert can scarcely be less hor- to. According to the commandment ot the rible. The people murmured e.nd se.id When Lord. Literally," at the mouth of Jehovah," the worst comes on men, if they are alone, they i.e. a.s God ordered them. The command was bear it silently ; but if they can find a scape- signified by the movement of the "pillar of goat, they murmur. To lay the blo.me cf the the cloud." And pitched in Rephidim. The situation on another is e. huge satisfaction to the word Reµbidim signifies "resting places," and ord.illlll'y human mind, which shrinks from re- •· is the natural name for the paradise of the sponsibility, and would fain shift the burthenon Bcdouins in the palm-grove where the ch11rch some one eloe. To kill us, Compare eh. xiv. 11, cR. xvn. 1-7.] THE BOOK OF EXODUS.
,cvi. 3. The circwnstnnces of their life in the and go on in front of them, with some of the wiWcrncss were such, that, until acc11stomed elders e.s witnesses, that the miroele mav be to them, the people thought that, at each step, sufficiently attested." On the otr,er occasion. they must perish. It may be freely admitted, when water we.s brought forth out of the rork t'hnt without continual miraculous aid this (Num. xx. 8---11), it we.s done in the presence would have been the natural denouement. of the people. Pei-haps now there was a real And our oattle. It is interesting to see that danger of their stoning Moses, had he nr,t the "cattle " still survived, and were regarded quilted them. Thy rod with which thou as of great importance. How far they served smotest the river. See above, eh. vii. 20. as o. secondary hee.d of subsistance to the Ver. 6.-Behold, I will stand before thee people during the 40 years, is a point not yet there. A visible Divine appearance seems to sufficiently elaborated. be intended, which would guide Moses to the Ver. 4.-And Moses cried unto the Lord. It exact place where he should strike. The rock is one of the most prominent traits of the in Horeb must have been a remarkable object, character of Moses, that, at the occurrence of already known to Moses during the time that a difficulty, he always carries it straight to he dwelt in the Sinai-Horeb region ; but its God. (See eh. xv. 25; xx.iv. 15; x.xxii. 30; exe.ct locality cannot be pointed out. It can- xmii. 8; Num. xi. 2, 11; xii.11; xiv. 13--19, not, however, have been very far distant from etc.) They be e.1.most ready to stone me. This Rephidim. (See ver. 8.) is the first which we hear of stoni"g as a Ver. 7.-He called the name of the place punishment. It is naturally one of the easiest Massah. Massah is from the root nasah, " to modes of wreaking popular vengeance on an try," or "tempt," and means "trial'' or obnoxious individual, and we.s known to the "temptation." Meribah is from rub, " to Greeks e.s early as the time of the Persian war chide, quarrel," and means "contention, chid- (Herod. ix. 5), to the Macedonians (Q. Curt. ing, strife." Moses gave the same name to Vit. Alez. vi. 11, 38), and others. There is, the place near Kadesh, where water we.s once however, no trace of it among the Egyptians. more brought out of the rock, near the end of Ver. 5.-0o on before the people. " Leave the wanderings. (See Nwn. xx. 13; Deut. the people," i.e., "where they are, in Rephidim, xxxii. 51 ; Ps. cvi. 32.)