Psalm 114 · a question people ask
"who turned the rock into a pool of water" (114:8). Which rock?
The psalm doesn't say. Exodus and Numbers each tell of water from a rock in the wilderness. At Horeb the LORD said, "You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink" (Exodus 17:6). Later, at Kadesh (Numbers 20:1), Moses "struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly" (Numbers 20:11). Psalm 114's rock is tsur, the word of Exodus 17 (tap rock); Numbers 20 has another Hebrew word, sela, as Exodus 17's notes point out. Psalm 114's flint is challamish (tap flint), and Moses puts the two words together: "who poured water for you out of the rock of flint" (Deuteronomy 8:15). Exodus and Numbers say water came out; pool and spring are the psalm's own words. Psalms 78 and 105 tell of the rock too (Psalm 78:15-16, 78:20, 105:41), and their notes list where the rest of the Bible tells it. These notes don't say which rock Psalm 114 means, or whether it means both.
The verses
“who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters.”
“Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.”
“The children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month. The people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died there, and was buried there.”
“Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank.”