Moses cried unto the Lord. His language, instead of betraying any signs of resentment or vindictive imprecation on a people who had given him a cruel and unmerited treatment, was the expression of an anxious wish to know what was the best to be done in the circumstances (cf. Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:21).
Verse 5. The Lord said ... - not to smite the rebels, but the rock; not to bring a stream of blood from the breast of the offenders, but a stream of water from the granite cliffs.
Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel. It is observable that the miraculous supply of water provided for the Israelites on this occasion was not given at Rephidim; because the rock that was smitten was not there, nor even in the immediate neighbourhood of that station.
Verse 6. I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb - "Horeb," i:e., dry place-the name given to the central cluster of the mountain range of which Sinai is a particular summit. It was perhaps the greatest miracle performed by Moses, and in many respects bore a resemblance to the greatest of Christ's, being done without ostentation and in the presence of a few chosen witnesses. [The Septuagint has: hode egoo hesteeka ekei pro tou se-Behold, I stand there before thou come to Horeb.]
The cloudy pillar, moving forward, guided the way of Moses and the elders as the star, at a future period did that of the wise men at Bethlehem, and stationing itself at a particular spot, pointed out the rock which was to be smitten. Since the Israelites, while at Rephidim, drew their supply of water from this source, it is obvious that the locality of the rock was not far distant. Those who, with Lepsius, Ritter, Stanley, Drew, etc., place Rephidim at the entrance of Wady Feiran, consider the smitten rock to have been situated at the further end of the wady, where, according to their view, is the northern borderline of the mountain region to which the general name of Horeb is given, and they see the traditional spring of Moses in the present brook of Feiran. But as, according to Burckhardt, Robinson, Tischendorf, Wilson, and others, Rephidim was in Wady es-Shiekh, the smitten rock, which was in advance of that position, must be sought for in Jebel Musa.
"The rock in Horeb" may have been selected in preference to any other rock at hand, just because the call of Moses to his mission, and the miracle of the burning bush, had already been associated with that district or particular mountain, and because greater signs and wonders were about to be exhibited at it in connection with the giving of the law. The water may have flowed to the Israelites when encamped at Rephidim, at the distance of several miles from the rock, as the winter torrents do now through the wadys of Arabia Petraea. In fact, the language of the psalmist would lead us to conclude that this was actually the case (Psalms 78:15-16). The rock may have been smitten, too, at such a height, and at a place bearing such a relation to the Sinaitic valleys, as to furnish in this way supplies of water to the Israelites during the first of their journeyings from Horeb (Deuteronomy 1:1). On this supposition, also, light is perhaps thrown on the figurative language of the apostle, when he speaks of the 'rock following' (1 Corinthians 10:4) the Israelites. On this supposition, also, we see a reason why the rock should have been smitten to yield a large supply to flow to a distance, even though springs and rills might have been found pre-existent in Sinai.
With regard to the particular instance in this passage, the mountain range Wateiyah runs northeast and southwest, like a wall, and is very picturesque. It approaches Wady Shiekh at the place which is supposed to have been Rephidim; and it is to be particularly noticed, that water from the rock in Horeb could easily flow to them at this very place on the only road practicable to them from Wady Feiran to Sinai. 'The Wady Shiekh, through which we had come down from Sinai, forms to this day, in fact, the channel by which the winter torrents find their way to the Red Sea, passing out of it into Wady Feiran, which, after running to the northwest until it approaches the Wady Mukatteb, strikes nearly directly to the west, and runs into the sea. I was greatly struck with the regular descent from Sinai of this water-channel, through the Wady esh-Shiekh' (Wilson's 'Lands,' vol. 1:, pp. 234, 235, 354).
Dr. Robinson, after remarking that neither in Wady esh-Shiekh nor in the adjacent district is there at the present day any special want of water, acknowledges his inability to solve the question how, in such a locality, the Israelites should have been so destitute of water, in any other way than by supposing that, as that people seem to have remained several days-perhaps a week-at Rephidim, the scanty supply of water was exhausted ('Biblical Researches,' vol 1:, p. 179). This solution is quite satisfactory, considering that the daily necessities of more than two million people had to be met. The presence of the elders with Moses when he struck the rock would be of the greatest importance, in affording independent and reliable testimony that there was no water there previously. Thus our Lord took select disciples along with him to some of the most interesting scenes of his ministry, to be witnesses of the greatest of his miracles.
After what has been said, it is almost superfluous to observe, that the rock in Wady el Lejah which monkish tradition points out as the one smitten has no just claims to that honour. It is a huge insular mass of granite, in the form of a cube, about twelve feet high, with a number of grooves and fissures-some natural, and others produced by the hand of man. But although the position of the smitten rock is unknown, this boulder in El Lejah could not be the veritable one. [The apostle, referring to that rock (1 Corinthians 10:4), calls it pneumatikee, a spiritual, i:e., a typical rock, symbolical of a spiritual reality, and the circumstance of its being 'smitten' had its antitype in the death of the Saviour, from whose wounded side the living waters have flowed to refresh and regenerate the world.]