Reference: Massah and Meribah
Hastings
Ex 17:1-7 (Jewish Encyclopedia) tells of a miraculous gift of water at a spot near Horeb, which was called Massah and Meribah ('testing' and 'contention') because the people tested Jahweh by doubting His providence and contended with Moses. It is implied that this occurred about a year after the Exodus. Nu 20:1-18, a later narrative (Priestly Narrative), gives a similar account, but puts it thirty-seven years later, and with important variations. The scene is now laid at Kadesh, which receives the name Meribah from the contention of Israel with Jahweh. Moses and Aaron also sin against Him. There are references to the first passage in De 6:16; 9:22; Ps 95:8; and to the second in De 32:51; Ps 106:32; in Ps 81:7 the two are apparently confused. De 33:8 regards the events at Kadesh in a peculiar light: here Jahweh proves Levi at Massah and strives with (or for) him at Meribah. The tendency of recent criticism is to consider Ex 17 and Nu 20 as duplicate records of the same event, the locality of which must be fixed at Kadesh, where the spring 'Ain Kad
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And they returned, and came to En-mishpat (the same is Kadesh), and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, who dwelt in Hazazon-tamar.
And all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to the commandment of LORD, and encamped in Rephidim. And there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, Why do ye contend with me? Why do ye challenge LORD? read more. And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured against Moses, and said, Why have thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our sons and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried to LORD, saying, What shall I do to this people? They are almost ready to stone me. And LORD said to Moses, Pass on before the people, and take with thee from the elders of Israel, and thy rod, with which thou smote the river, take in thy hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shall smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contending of the sons of Israel, and because they challenged LORD, saying, Is LORD among us, or not?
And the sons of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness 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 assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. read more. And the people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying, Would that we had died when our brothers died before LORD! And why have ye brought the assembly of LORD into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our beasts? And why have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to 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 to the door of the tent of meeting, and fell upon their faces. And the glory of LORD appeared to them. And LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye to the rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water, and thou shall bring forth water to them out of the rock. So thou shall give the co And Moses took the rod from before LORD, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, ye rebels. Shall we bring forth water to you out of this rock? 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. And LORD said to Moses and Aaron, Because ye did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the sons of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah, because the sons of Israel strove with LORD, and he was sanctified in them. And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, Thus says thy brother Israel, Thou know all the travail that has befallen us, how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time. And the Egyptians dealt ill with us and our fathers. And when we cried to LORD, he heard our voice, and sent a [heavenly] agent, and brought us forth out of Egypt. And, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the outermost of thy border. Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard, neither will we drink of the water of the wells. We will go along the king's highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand nor to t And Edom said to him, Thou shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against thee.
and houses full of all good things, which thou did not fill, and cisterns hewn out, which thou did not hew, vineyards and olive trees, which thou did not plant, and thou shall eat and be full,
Ye shall not challenge LORD your God, as ye challenged him in Massah.
because ye trespassed against me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because ye did not sanctify me in the midst of the sons of Israel.
And he said, LORD came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them. He shined forth from mount Paran, and he came from the ten thousands of holy ones. At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
And of Levi he said, Thy Thummim and thy Urim are with thy holy man, whom thou proved at Massah, with whom thou strove at the waters of Meribah,
Thou called in trouble, and I delivered thee. I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, as the day of trial in the wilderness,
They also angered him at the waters of Meribah, so that it went ill with Moses because of them,
And the east side, between Hauran and Damascus and Gilead, and the land of Israel, shall be the Jordan, from the [north] border to the east sea ye shall measure. This is the east side. And the south side southward shall be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meriboth-kadesh, to the brook [of Egypt], to the great sea. This is the south side southward.