Numbers 20:11

Hebrew Bible

9 So Moses took the staff from before the Lord, just as he commanded him. 10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the community together in front of the rock, and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring water out of this rock for you?” 11 Then Moses raised his hand, and struck the rock twice with his staff. And water came out abundantly. So the community drank, and their beasts drank too. 12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough to show me as holy before the Israelites, therefore you will not bring this community into the land I have given them.” 13 These are the waters of Meribah, because the Israelites contended with the Lord, and his holiness was maintained among them.

Pseudo Jonathan Numbers 20:11

Targum

And Mosheh took the rod of the miracles from before the Lord, as he had commanded him. And Mosheh and Aharon gathered the congregation together before the rock. And Mosheh said to them, Hear now, rebels: is it possible for us to bring forth water for you from this rock? And Mosheh lifted up his hand, and with his rod struck the rock two times: at the first time it dropped blood; but at the second time there came forth a multitude of waters. And the congregation and their cattle drank. But the Lord spake to Mosheh and Aharon with the oath, Because ye have not believed in My Word, to sanctify Me in the sight of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land that I will give them.

 Notes and References

"... John 19:34b ... Water cleanses Pilate, while blood placates the mob, pronounces Cyril of Jerusalem. For Augustine the blood, as the seed of the Church, is prefigured by the extraction of Eve from Adam’s side, and also by the door in the side of the Ark. Romanus hints that it purges the sin to which Eve incited Adam. Since blood and water are equally miraculous, Theophylact denounces those who refuse to mingle water with wine in the eucharist (Aquinas 1997: 589). Daisenberger rejoices that the spear thrust opened the heart of Christ; Julian of Norwich avers that it created a space in which the world can stand, and that the flowing wound suckles us like mother’s milk. Crashaw celebrates the wounds that hastened the Resurrection, ‘With blush of thine own Blood thy day adorning’ (1927: 245). Even Marlowe’s Faustus derives vain hope from a vision of Christ’s blood ‘in the firmament’ (1955: 157). Cowper traces this ‘fountain filled with blood’ to Zech 13:1 (Lindars notes that Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Numbers links the miracle at Numbers 20:11 to the transformation of water into blood at Exodus 4:9). J. Lightfoot compares a rabbinic statement that the rock of Moses gushed out blood and water. 1 John 5:6 remembers that Christ came ‘not only by water but by blood’; Ignatius declares that the blood ‘purified the waters’. According to the Golden Legend it cleansed the skull of Adam, which was buried beneath the Mount. To Hoskyns the double flood prefigures the benefits received by one who is born again of water and the Spirit (3:3–5) and drinks the blood of the Son of Man (6:53–6) ..."

Edwards, M. J. Blackwell Bible Commentary: John (pp. 185-186) Blackwell Publishing, 2004

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