Texts in Conversation
Numbers 20 describes Israel complaining to Moses until God brings water from a rock at Meribah. Judges 15 echoes this, describing Samson similarly complaining after his victory and receiving water from the ground at Lehi.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Numbers 20:11
Hebrew Bible
5 Why have you brought us up from Egypt only to bring us to this dreadful place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink!” 6 So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting. They then threw themselves down with their faces to the ground, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 8 “Take the staff and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and then speak to the rock before their eyes. It will pour forth its water, and you will bring water out of the rock for them, and so you will give the community and their beasts water to drink.” 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.
Judges 15:19
Hebrew Bible
17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down and named that place Ramath Lehi. 18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into the hands of these uncircumcised Philistines?” 19 So God split open the basin at Lehi, and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring En Hakkore. It remains in Lehi to this very day.
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Notes and References
“... water is stated in the brief mention of the event in Nehemiah 9:15, 20 and also in Isaiah 48:21 which, as regards vocabulary, is reminiscent of Psalm 78:15, 20 (compare Van der Merwe, 216f.). See further also Wisdom of Solomon 11:4, 7f.; 5 Ezra 1:20. The description of the new exodus in the book of Isaiah speaks about streams of water in the desert in a manner (Isaiah 35:6f.; 41:17ff.; 43:20; 44:3; 49:9ff.; compare also Psalm 107:35) which recalls Psalm 78:15f.; 20; 105:41 (and also Isaiah 48:21). Nothing is said, however, about the rock(s) as source of the water. On the other hand, the Pentateuch and the Psalms are totally silent about a transformation of the desert. Water from a rock occurs also in an altogether different context; when Samson is dying from thirst God splits (בקע) the hollow place in Lehi so that water came from it (Judges 15:18f.) ...”
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