John Gill Commentary Exodus 17

And all the congregation of the children of Israel
journeyed from the wilderness of Sin
Where they had stayed some time, at least a week, as it should seem, from the gathering the manna there sixdays, and resting on the seventh:

after their journeys :
first from the wilderness of Sin to Dophkah, and from Dophkah to Alush, and from Alush to Rephidim, asappears from (Numbers 33:12–14) their two stations at Dophkah and Alush are here omitted, nothing veryremarkable or of any moment happening at either place:

according to the commandment ;
or "mouth of the Lord" ^F4 , who, either with an articulate voice out of the cloud, ordered whenthey should march, and where they should encamp; or else this was signified by the motion or rest of thepillar of cloud or fire, which always went before them, in which the Lord was:

and pitched in Rephidim ;
which was a place on the western side of Mount Sinai: according to Bunting ^F5 , Dophkah was twelvemiles from the wilderness of Sin, and Alush twelve miles from Dophkah, and Rephidim eight miles from Alush:and Jerom says ^F6 , according to the propriety of the Syriac language, it signifies a remission ofhands: and to which the Targum of Jonathan seems to have respect, adding,

``the place where their hands ceased from the precepts of the law, wherefore the fountains were dried up;'' and it follows:

and there was no water for the people to drink ;
being a sandy desert place.

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: (yp le) "super ore", Montanus, "ad os", Vatablus.
• F5: Travels, p. 82.
• F6: Epist. ad Fabiolam de 42 mansion. tom. 3. fol. 15. B.

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" ^F7 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 has 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 you 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.

FOOTNOTES:

• F7: (wnt) "Date", Pagninus, Montanus

And the people thirsted there for water
They saw there was no water when they first came thither, and therefore scolded Moses for bringing them to such a place, where they could not subsist; and having stayed some little time here, and all the water they brought with them from Alush being spent, and having none to drink, began to be very thirsty:

and the people murmured against Moses ;
became more impatient and enraged, and threw out their invectives against him with much acrimony and severity:

Why have you brought us up out of Egypt ?
where it would have been much better for us to have continued:

to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst :

which is intolerable to any, and especially to children and cattle, which require frequent drinking: they could not suppose that Moses had such a murderous view in bringing them out of Egypt, or that this was his intention in it, but that this would be the issue and event of it.

And Moses cried to the Lord .
&c.] Or prayed to him, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; which shows the distress he was thrown into, the vehemence of his prayer, and perhaps the loud and lamentable tone in which he expressed it: this was the method he always took, and the refuge he fled to in all his times of trouble; in which he did well, and set a good example of piety and devotion to God, of faith and trust in him: saying,

what shall I do to this people ?
or, "for this people" ^F8 ; to relieve them in their present exigency; suggesting his own inability to do any thing for them: yet not despairing of relief, but rather expressing faith in the power and goodness of God to keep them, by his application to him; desiring that he would open a way for their help, and direct him what he must do in this case for them:

something, he intimates, must be done speedily for the glory of God, for his own safety, and to prevent the people sinning yet more and more, and so bring destruction on them; for, adds he,

they are almost ready to stone me
or, "yet a little, and they will stone me" ^F9 ; if the time of help is protracted, if relief is not in a short time given, he had reason to believe from the menaces they had given out, the impatience they had showed, the rage they were in, they would certainly take up stones and stone him, being in a stony and rocky place;

and this they would do, not as a formal punishment of him as a false prophet, telling them they should be brought to Canaan, when they were brought into the wilderness and perishing there; which law respecting such an one was not yet in being; but this he supposed as what an enraged multitude was wont to do, and which was more ready at hand for them to do than anything else, see (Exodus 8:26) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F8: (hzh Mel) "populo haic", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus
• F9: (jem dwe) "adhuc paululum et lapidabit me." V. L. "parum abest", Tigurine version; "adhuc modicum", Pagninus, Montanus; "adhuc paulisper", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ainsworth.

And the Lord said to Moses
Out of the pillar of cloud:

go on before the people ,
lead them on nearer to Mount Sinai or Horeb, within sight of which they now were. Jarchi adds, by way of explanation, "and see if they will stone you"; fear not, go on boldly, no harm shall come to you:

and take with you of the elders of Israel ;
some of them for a witness, as the above writer observes, that they may see that by your hand water comes out of the rock, and may not say there were fountains there from the days of old.

These were taken, because they were the principal men among the people, who, as they were men of years, so of prudence and probity, and whose veracity might be depended upon; and since so great a multitude could not all of them see the miracle, the rock being smote, and the water only flowing in one part of it, and perhaps the road to it but narrow, it was proper some persons should be singled out as witnesses of it, and who so proper as the elders of the people?

and your rod, wherewith you smote the river, take in your hand and
go ;
wherewith the river Nile was smitten, and the water became blood, when Moses and Aaron first went to Pharaoh; and which, though smitten by Aaron, yet being with the rod of Moses, and by his order, is attributed to him; or else with which the Red sea was smitten by Moses, and divided; which being but a narrow channel, or an arm of the sea, might be called a river:

and this circumstance is observed, as the afore mentioned writer thinks, to let the Israelites know, that the rod was not, as they thought, only designed for inflicting punishment, as on Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but also for bringing good to them; and when they saw this in his hand, by which so many miracles had been wrought, they might be encouraged to hope that something was going to be done in their favour, and that water would be produced for them to drink.