Texts in Conversation
Deuteronomy 8 depicts the wilderness as a place of danger where water was brought out of rock to sustain Israel, linking the memory to a lesson about humility and dependence. Psalm 114 draws on the same tradition but reshapes it, describing the rock itself being transformed into water instead of water coming out of the rock.
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Deuteronomy 8:15
Hebrew Bible
13 when your cattle and flocks increase, when you have plenty of silver and gold, and when you have abundance of everything, 14 be sure you do not feel self-important and forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery, 15 and who brought you through the great, fearful wilderness of venomous serpents and scorpions, an arid place with no water. He made water flow from hard rock and 16 fed you in the wilderness with manna (which your ancestors had never before known) so that he might by humbling you test you and eventually bring good to you. 17 Be careful not to say, “My own ability and skill have gotten me this wealth.”
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Psalm 114:8
Hebrew Bible
3 The sea looked and fled; the Jordan River turned back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. 5 Why do you flee, O sea? Why do you turn back, O Jordan River? 6 Why do you skip like rams, O mountains, like lambs, O hills? 7 Tremble, O earth, before the Lord—before the God of Jacob, 8 who turned a rock into a pool of water, a hard rock into springs of water.
Date: 6th-3rd Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In this last couplet of verses, a parallel is clearly established between the skipping of the mountains / hills (verse 6) and the liquid element (verse 8). In parallel to the pair (5/7) of verses, it seems that this pair ensures that the mountains will also liquefy in the future. This point is confirmed by the use of the term יכפהה in verse 8, a participial form transforming the time frame. As stressed by Adele Berlin, “the time frame is no longer in the past but is now tenseless-timeless, suggesting that the God who changed the natural world before will change it again.” Such an interpretation, together with the previous considerations about the melting dimension of the epiphany of YHWH, invites us to reconsider the interpretation of verse 8. The transformation of rock into water is traditionally understood as the supply of drinkable water. This interpretation is supported by the parallel use, in the context of the divine supply of water to the Israelites, of the terms rock (רוצ) and flint (שימלח) both in Psalm 114:8 and in Deuteronomy 8:15 ... However, this interpretation does not account for the strong differences between them: in Deuteronomy 8:15, YHWH is bringing out (איצומה) waters from the rock, while in Psalm 114:8, YHWH turns/transforms (יכפוהה) the rock into waters. This difference is notable since the verb ךפה is never used elsewhere in the Bible to relate to the springing of drinkable water from the rock ..."
Amzallag, Nissim, and Mikhal Avriel
The Canonic Responsa Reading of Psalm 114 and its Theological Significance
(pp. 303-323) Old Testament Essays, Vol. 24. No. 2, 2011
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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