Page:Keil and Delitzsch,Biblical commentary the old testament the pentateuch, trad James Martin, volume 1, 1885.djvu/1158

 the other. In their faithless discontent, the people wished that they had died when their brethren died before Jehovah. The allusion is not to Korah's company, as Knobel supposes, and the word גּוע, “to expire,” would be altogether inapplicable to their destruction; but the reference is to those who had died one by one during the thirty-seven years. “Why,” they murmured once more against Moses and Aaron, “''have ye brought the congregation of God into this desert, to perish there with their cattle? Why have ye brought it out of Egypt into this evil land, where there is no seed, no fig-trees and pomegranates, no vines, and no water to drink?''”

Verse 6
Moses and Aaron then turned to the tabernacle, to ask for the help of the Lord; and the glory of the Lord immediately appeared (see at Num 17:7 and Num 14:10).

verses 7-8
The Lord relieved the want of water. Moses was to take the staff, and with Aaron to gather together the congregation, and speak to the rock before their eyes, when it would give forth water for the congregation and their cattle to drink.

verses 9-11
Moses then took the rod “from before Jehovah,” - i.e., the rod with which he had performed miracles in Egypt (Exo 17:5), and which was laid up in the sanctuary, not Aaron's rod which blossomed (Num 17:10), - and collected the congregation together before the rock, and said to them, “Hear, ye rebels, shall we fetch you water out of this rock?” He then smote the rock twice with his rod, whereupon much water came out, so that the congregation and their cattle had water to drink.

Verse 12
The Lord then said to both of them, both Moses and Aaron, “Because ye have not trusted firmly in Me, to sanctify Me before the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” The want of belief or firm confidence in the Lord, through which both of them had sinned, was not actual unbelief or distrust in the omnipotence and grace of God, as if God could not relieve the want of water or extend His help to the murmuring people; for the Lord had promised His help to Moses, and Moses did what the Lord had commanded him. It was simply the want of full believing confidence, a momentary wavering of that immovable assurance, which the two heads of the nation ought to have shown to the congregation, but did not show. Moses did even more than God had commanded him. Instead of speaking to the rock with the rod of God in his hand, as God directed him, he spoke to the congregation, and in these inconsiderate words, “Shall we fetch you water out of the rock?” words which, if they did not express any doubt in the