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
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And then turned they and came to the well of judgment which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites that dwell in Hazezon-Tamar.
And all the company of the children of Israel went on their journeys from the wilderness of Sin at the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: where was no water for the people to drink. And the people chode with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." And Moses said unto them, "Why chide ye with me, and wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?" read more. There the people thirsted for water, and murmured against Moses and said, "Wherefore hast thou brought us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?" And Moses cried unto the LORD saying, "What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me!" And the LORD said unto Moses, "Go before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel: and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go. Behold, I will stand there before thee upon a rock in Horeb: and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out thereof, that the people may drink." And Moses did even so before the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place: Massah-and-Meribah: because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"
And the whole multitude of the children of Israel, came into the desert of Zin in the first month, and the people dwelt at Kadesh. And there died Miriam, and was buried there. Moreover, there was no water for the multitude, wherefore they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. read more. And the people chode with Moses and spake, saying, "Would God that we had perished when our brethren perished before the LORD. Why have ye brought the congregation of the LORD unto this wilderness, that both we and our cattle should die here? Wherefore brought ye us out of Egypt, to bring us into this ungracious place, which is no place of seed nor of figs nor vines nor of pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink?" And Moses and Aaron went from the congregation unto the door of the tabernacle of witness, and fell upon their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared unto them. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, "Take the staff and gather, thou and thy brother Aaron, the congregation together; and say unto the rock, before their eyes, that he give forth his water. And thou shalt bring them water out of the rock and shalt give the company drink, and their beasts also." And Moses took the staff 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, ye rebellious, must we fetch you water out of this rock?" And Moses lift up his hand with his staff and smote the rock two times, and the water came out abundantly, and the multitude 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 strife, because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified upon them. And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, "Thus sayeth thy brother Israel: Thou knowest all the travail that hath happened us, how our fathers went down into Egypt, and how we have dwelt in Egypt a long time, and, how the Egyptians vexed both us and our fathers. Then we cried unto the LORD and he heard our voices, and sent an angel and hath fetched us out of Egypt. And behold, we are in Kadesh, a city hard by the borders of thy country: let us go a good fellowship through thy country: we will not go through the fields nor through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the fountains: but we will go by the highway and neither turn unto the right hand nor to the left, until we be past thy country." And Edom answered him, "See thou come not by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword."
and houses full of all manner goods which thou filledst not, and wells digged which thou diggedst not, and vines and olive trees which thou planted not; and when thou hast eaten, and art full:
Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God as ye did at Massah.
For ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of strife, at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin: because ye sanctified me not among the children of Israel.
saying, "The LORD came from Sinai, and showed his beams from Seir unto them; and appeared gloriously from mount Paran, and he came with thousands of saints, and in his righthand a law of fire for them.
And unto Levi he said, "Thy perfectness and thy light be according unto the man of thy mercy, who thou hast tempted at Massah, when ye strove by the waters of strife.
When thou calledest upon me in trouble, I delivered thee, and heard thee, what time as the storm fell upon thee. I proved thee also at the waters of strife. Selah.
Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that he punished Moses for their sakes,
The east side shall ye measure from Hauran and Damascus, from Gilead and the land of Israel by Jordan and so forth, from the sea coast, that lieth eastward. And this is the East part. The south side is, from Tamar forth to the waters of strife unto Kadesh, the river, to the main sea: and that is the south part.
Upon the borders of Gad southward, the coasts shall reach from Tamar forth unto the waters of strife to Kadesh, and to the flood, even to the main sea.