they (only used when emphatic) · personal pronoun, 3rd person masculine plural
water
מֵ֣יmei
H4325
water · noun, common masculine plural construct
Meribah
מְרִיבָ֔הme.ri.Vah
H4809
Meribah · proper noun, a place name
children
בְנֵֽיve.nei-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
strove
רָב֥וּra.Vu
H7378
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
LORD
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
sanctified
וַיִּקָּדֵ֖שׁvai.yi.ka.Desh
H6942
to be (causatively · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 17:7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD…
Psalms 95:8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Deuteronomy 33:8 And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at…
Deuteronomy 32:51 Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctifi…
Psalms 106:32-48 They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes:
Isaiah 5:16 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
Ezekiel 20:41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been sca…
Ezekiel 36:23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 20:1-13
After thirty-eight years' tedious marches, or rather tedious rests, in the wilderness, backward towards the Red Sea, the armies of Israel now at length set their faces towards Canaan again, and had come not far off from the place where they were when, by the righteous sentence of divine Justice, they were made to begin their wanderings. Hitherto they had been led about as in a maze or labyrinth, while execution was doing upon the rebels that were sentenced; but they were now brought into the right way again: they abode in Kadesh (Num 20:1), not Kadesh-barnea, which was near the borders of Canaan, but another Kadesh on the confines of Edom, further off from the land of promise, yet in the way…
This is the water of Meribah--The word "Kadesh" is added to it [Deu 32:51] to distinguish it from another Meribah (Exo 17:7).
John Gill on Numbers 20:13
This is the water of Meribah,.... Or "strife": this is the name by which the water had in this place, and from this rock, was called; and which is the same name given to the place at Horeb, where a rock had been smitten, and water had flowed, as now, the first year they came out of Egypt; and to distinguish this from that, this is sometimes called Meribah-Kadesh, Deuteronomy 32:51, this being at Kadesh, as that was at Rephidim:
because the children of Israel strove with the Lord: for their chiding and striving with Moses was interpretatively striving with the Lord himself, whose ministers and servants they were:
and he was sanctified in them; that is, the glory of his divine perfections wa…
Numbers 20:1-13
1. Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin, in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
1. Pervenerunt autem filii Israel universa congregatio, in desertum Sin, mense primo, et mansit populus in Cades: ubi mortua est Maria, et sepulta illic fuit:
2. And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
2. Quumque non esset aqua congregationi, convenerunt adversus Mosen et Aharon.
3. And the people chode with Moses, and spoke, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord!
3. Et jurga…
The Church Fathers
And that He might increase in them this fear, immediately, by the mouth of offence, the rod of His chastisement was revealed, and after the offence the Chastiser gave them no respite, because their servitude was not worthy of His longsuffering. Above their head the rod of justice hung continually, and immediately they committed sin they were chastened, and at the time of their offence they were beaten, and at the entrance of the path of their sins they forthwith received rebuke; for longsuffering teacheth the foolish servant contempt, and in order that that stupid nation, which in the manner of an evil-doing servant, sat in the house of God, might not [learn] contempt, the Chastiser took away longsuffering, especially when they went forth from Egypt. And we must also understand the object of that swift punishment in another way, and that there was not longsuffering as regardeth the correction of their sins; for God the Teacher took the people, like a child, from Egypt their nurse, that He might deliver unto them the doctrine of His knowledge, and might teach them the instruction of His wisdom. But the people, in their ignorance, when instruction had been delivered unto them, forgot it, and they never kept in remembrance the meditation of the commandments of God, and they were frequently punished with severity, so that, if it were only through fear of chastisement, they might lay hold upon the remembrance of instruction. The man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath day was stoned by all the congregation; and the earth opened and swallowed up others who were called by Moses, and who scorned him and came not; and fire went forth suddenly, and burnt up the bodies of others who thought lightly of his priestly office, and who sought honour for themselves; and others, who in the guise of paying honour, brought strange fire out of season, were burnt up by a tongue of fire which went forth from the tabernacle, and they perished; and others, because they asked for flesh and rejected the bread of angels, were tortured by the indigestion which came upon them; and others who went astray as concerning the calf, were pierced through by the swords of the Levites; and others, who were the cause of the revolt at the waters of trial were set apart for destruction; and others who murmured against the Lord perished by fiendish snakes; and likewise they all, because they strove…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Aaron — The eldest son of Amram and Jochebed, a daughter of Levi (Ex. 6:20). Some explain the name as meaning mountaineer, others mountain of strength, illuminator. He was born in Egypt three years before…
Meribah — Quarrel or strife. (1.) One of the names given by Moses to the fountain in the desert of Sin, near Rephidim, which issued from the rock in Horeb, which he smote by the divine command, “because of the…
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Called Meribah to commemorate the murmuring — Called Meribah to commemorate the murmuring
Trouble · .About water — .About water
Unbelief · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The account closes with the words, "This is the water of strife, about which the children of Israel strove with Jehovah, and He sanctified Himself on them." This does not imply that the scene of this occurrence received the name of "strife-water," but simply that the water which God brought out of the rock for the Israelites received that name. But God sanctified Himself on them, by the fact that, on the one hand, He put their unbelief to shame by the miraculous gift of water, and on the other hand punished Moses and Aaron for the weakness of their faith.
(Note: The assumption of neological critics, that this occurrence is identical with the similar one at Rephidim (Ex 17), and that this is…
Meribah: As they had at Rephidim (Exod 17:1-7), the Israelites coined a name (“Arguing”) that referred more to the incident than to a geographical location. • God demonstrated his holiness through his judgment on Aaron and Moses’ sin.
Rashi on Numbers 20:13
המה מי מריבה THESE ARE THE WATERS OF MERIBAH — These are they that were alluded to, though unwittingly, on another occasion: these it was that Pharaoh’s astrologers foresaw, saying that Israel’s deliverer would be punished through water. On that account they decreed (Exodus 1:22) “Every son that is born shall ye cast into the river” (Sanhedrin 101b).
ויקדש בם AND HE WAS SANCTIFIED IN THEM — For Moses and Aaron died on account of them (cf. Targum Jonathan on). When the Holy One, blessed be He, executes judgement upon those who are holy to Him he is revered and sanctified by mankind. Similarly does it state, (Psalms 68:36) “Revered art Thou when Thou showest Thyself אלהים, Judge, in consequen…
