Exodus 17:2

Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) The people did chide.—Water is scanty along the route by which we have supposed Rephidim to have been reached. Such a supply as the people may have brought with them from Elim would have been exhausted. They would have looked forward to Rephidim both for their immediate necessity and for replenishing their water-skins. They would be suffering both from thirst and disappointment. The needs of their children and their cattle (Exodus 17:3) would be an aggravation of their pain. They would see no hope in the future. Under the circumstances we cannot be surprised at their “chiding.” Nothing but a very lively faith, or an utter resignation to the will of God, could have made a people patient and submissive in such an extremity.

Give us water.—It was not faith that spoke in these words, but wrath. They had no belief that Moses could give them water, and “were almost ready to stone” him (Exodus 17:4).

Benson Commentary

Exodus 17:2. Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? — By distrusting his power, providence, and faithfulness, upon such a small occasion; by refusing to submit to his will, and to wait upon him in humble fervent prayer for relief; and instead thereof quarrelling with me, as if it were my fault that you want water, and by murmuring against God under my name.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:1-7 The children of Israel journeyed according to the commandment of the Lord, led by the pillar of cloud and fire, yet they came to a place where there was no water for them to drink. We may be in the way of duty, yet may meet with troubles, which Providence brings us into, for the trial of our faith, and that God may be glorified in our relief. They began to question whether God was with them or not. This is called their tempting God, which signifies distrust of him after they had received such proofs of his power and goodness. Moses mildly answered them. It is folly to answer passion with passion; that makes bad worse. God graciously appeared to help them. How wonderful the patience and forbearance of God toward provoking sinners! That he might show his power as well as his pity, and make it a miracle of mercy, he gave them water out of a rock. God can open fountains for us where we least expect them. Those who, in this wilderness, keep to God's way, may trust him to provide for them. Also, let this direct us to depend on Christ's grace. The apostle says, that Rock was Christ, 1Co 10:4, it was a type of him. While the curse of God might justly have been executed upon our guilty souls, behold the Son of God is smitten for us. Let us ask and receive. There was a constant, abundant supply of this water. Numerous as believers are, the supply of the Spirit of Christ is enough for all. The water flowed from the rock in streams to refresh the wilderness, and attended them on their way towards Canaan; and this water flows from Christ, through the ordinances, in the barren wilderness of this world, to refresh our souls, until we come to glory. A new name was given to the place, in remembrance, not of the mercy of their supply, but of the sin of their murmuring: Massah, Temptation, because they tempted God; Meribah, Strife, because they chid with Moses. Sin leaves a blot upon the name.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Tempt the Lord - It is a general characteristic of the Israelites that the miracles, which met each need as it arose, failed to produce a habit of faith: but the severity of the trial, the faintness and anguish of thirst in the burning desert, must not be overlooked in appreciating their conduct.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2, 3. the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink, &c.—The want of water was a privation, the severity of which we cannot estimate, and it was a great trial to the Israelites, but their conduct on this new occasion was outrageous; it amounted even to "a tempting of the Lord." It was an opposition to His minister, a distrust of His care, an indifference to His kindness, an unbelief in His providence, a trying of His patience and fatherly forbearance.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

By distrusting God’s power, and providence, and faithfulness, and goodness, upon such a small occasion, by refusing to submit to God’s will, and to wait upon him by humble and fervent prayers for relief, and instead thereof quarrelling with me, as if it were my fault, and murmuring against God under my name.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Wherefore the people did chide with Moses,.... Contended with him by words, expostulating with him in a very angry and indecent manner for bringing them thither; loading him with reproaches and calumnies, wrangling and quarrelling with him, and using him very ill, giving hard words and bad language:

and said, give us water, that we may drink; directing their speech both to Moses and Aaron, as the word "give" (g) being in the plural number shows; which was requiring that of them which only God could do and signifying as if they were under obligation to do it for them, since they had brought them out of Egypt, and had the care of them; and having seen so many miracles wrought by them, might conclude it was in their power to get them water when they pleased: had they desired them to pray to God for them, to give them water, and exercised faith on him, that he would provide for them, they had done well; which they might reasonably conclude he would, who had brought them out of Egypt, led them through the Red sea, had sweetened the waters at Marah for them, conducted them to fountains of water at Elim, and had rained flesh and bread about their tents in the wilderness of Sin, and still continued the manna with them:

and Moses said unto them, why chide ye with me? as if it was I that brought you hither, whereas it is the Lord that goes before you in the pillar of cloud and fire, and as if I kept water from you, or could give it you at pleasure; how unreasonable, as well as how ungenerous is it in you to chide with me on this account

wherefore do you tempt the Lord? the Lord Christ, as appears from 1 Corinthians 10:9 who with the Father and Spirit is the one Jehovah; him they tempted or tried; they tried whether he was present with them or not, Exodus 17:7, they tried his power, whether he could give them water in a dry and desert land; and they tried his patience by chiding with his servants, and showing so much distrust of his power and providence, of his goodness and faithfulness; and by their wretched ingratitude and rebellion they tempted him to work a miracle for them.

(g) "Date", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

Geneva Study Bible

Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye {b} tempt the LORD?

(b) Why do you distrust God? Why do you not look for comfort from him without complaining to us?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. Wherefore] the Heb. is simply And.

strove, i.e. disputed, expostulated. The word means properly to argue a case in a court of law; but it is often used more generally. Cf. as here, in the similar narrative, Numbers 20:3; Numbers 20:13; also Genesis 26:20-22; Genesis 31:36 (‘chode’), Jdg 11:25. (Not the word so rendered in Exodus 2:13, Exodus 21:22, which means to quarrel or fight.)

why [as just before] do ye put Jehovah to the proof?] by doubting, viz. (v. 7) whether He is really in your midst (cf. Numbers 11:20; Numbers 14:14), and able to supply your needs. Tempt is a misleading rendering: for to ‘tempt,’ in modern English, has acquired the sense of provoking or enticing a person in order that he may act in a particular way: whereas the Heb. nissâh is a neutral word, and means to test or prove a person to see whether he will act in a particular way (Exodus 16:4), or whether the character he bears is well established (1 Kings 10:1). God thus ‘proves’ a person, or puts him to the test, when He subjects him to a trial, to ascertain what his character is, or whether his loyalty to Him is sincere (Exodus 16:4, Deuteronomy 8:2; Deuteronomy 13:3; cf. Genesis 22:1, Exodus 15:25; Exodus 20:20 : so the ‘temptations’ of Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 7:19; Deuteronomy 29:3 are really trials, or provings, of Pharaoh’s disposition and purpose); and men test or ‘prove’ God when they act as if questioning, and so challenging Him to give proof of, His word, or promise, or ability to help; so here and v. 7 (cf. Deuteronomy 6:16, Psalm 95:9), Numbers 14:22, Psalm 78:18 (see v. 19 f.), Psalm 78:41; Psa 78:56, Psalm 106:14, cf. Isaiah 7:12 : in all these passages ‘tempt’ obscures the meaning.

If the analysis of the ch., adopted above, is correct, this clause will have stood originally after v. 3.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - The people did chide. I.e. "quarrelled," made open murmurs and complaint - as before frequently (Exodus 14:11, 12; Exodus 15:24; Exodus 16:2, 3). Give us water. As Moses had already given them flesh (the quails) and bread (the manna), so it perhaps seemed to the people easy that he should give them such a common thing as water. Stanley notices (p. 70) that the wadys suggest the idea of water, and make its absence the more intolerable - they are "exactly like rivers," with "torrent bed, and banks, and clefts in the rock for tributary streams, and at times even rushes and shrubs fringing their course" - signs of "water, water everywhere, yet not a drop to drink." Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? To "tempt the Lord" is to try his patience by want of faith, to arouse his anger, to provoke him to punish us. It was the special sin of the Israelites during the whole period of their sojourn in the wilderness. They "tempted and provoked the most high God" (Psalm 78:56); "provoked him to anger with their inventions" (Psalm 106:29), "murmured in their tents" (ib, 25), "provoked him at the sea" (ib, 7), "tempted him in the desert" (ib, 14). God's long-suffering, notwithstanding all, is simply amazing! Exodus 17:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

As there was no water to drink in Rephidim, the people murmured against Moses, for having brought them out of Egypt to perish with thirst in the wilderness. This murmuring Moses called "tempting God," i.e., unbelieving doubt in the gracious presence of the Lord to help them (Exodus 17:7). In this the people manifested not only their ingratitude to Jehovah, who had hitherto interposed so gloriously and miraculously in every time of distress or need, but their distrust in the guidance of Jehovah and the divine mission of Moses, and such impatience of unbelief as threatened to break out into open rebellion against Moses. "Yet a little," he said to God (i.e., a very little more), "and they stone me;" and the divine long-suffering and grace interposed in this case also, and provided for the want without punishing their murmuring. Moses was to pass on before the people, and, taking some of the elders with him, and his staff with which he smote the Nile, to go to the rock at Horeb, and smite upon the rock with the staff, at the place where God should stand before him, and water would come out of the rock. The elders were to be eye-witnesses of the miracle, that they might bear their testimony to it before the unbelieving people, "ne dicere possint, jam ab antiquis temporibus fontes ibi fuisse" (Rashi). Jehovah's standing before Moses upon the rock, signified the gracious assistance of God. לפני עמד frequently denotes the attitude of a servant when standing before his master, to receive and execute his commands. Thus Jehovah condescended to come to the help of Moses, and assist His people with His almighty power. His gracious presence caused water to flow out of the hard dry rock, though not till Moses struck it with his staff, that the people might acknowledge him afresh as the possessor of supernatural and miraculous powers. The precise spot at which the water was smitten out of the rock cannot be determined; for there is no reason whatever for fixing upon the summit of the present Horeb, Ras el Sufsafeh, from which you can take in the whole of the plain of er Rahah (Robinson, i. p. 154).