Marah, Manna, and the Rock

After so wonderful a deliverance, the Hebrews, as they were led on toward Mount Sinai, found the country a great trial to them. It was entirely desert, with nothing to live on, and it had very little water — not nearly enough for the people, and it could not feed any animal either, for it was parched and had no moisture to nourish anything that grows. Yet they had to cross this country, since there was no other for them to travel through. They had carried water with them from the land they had crossed before, as their leader had told them to; but when that was used up, they had to draw water from wells, with great labor, because the soil was so hard. And what water they did find was bitter, undrinkable, and scarce besides. Traveling this way, they came late in the evening to a place called Marah, named for the badness of its water, since mar means bitterness. They arrived there worn down by the long journey and by hunger, for their food had completely run out by then. There was a well there, which made them choose to stay; though it was not enough for so great a host, it gave them some comfort, being found in such desert country, for they heard from those who had gone ahead to search that there was nothing to be found farther on. Yet this water was bitter and unfit for men to drink — and not only that, even the pack animals could not bear it. [a]

Moses saw how downcast the people were, and there was no denying the cause. For the people were not like a regular army of men, who could meet the hardship pressing on them with manly endurance: the great number of children and women, too weak to be persuaded by reason, sapped the courage of the men themselves. So he was in great difficulty, and he made everyone’s misery his own. They all ran to him and begged him — the women for their infants and the men for the women — not to abandon them but to find some way to save them. So he turned to prayer, asking God to change the water from its present badness and make it fit to drink. When God had granted him this favor, he took the end of a stick that lay at his feet, split it down the middle lengthwise, and let it down into the well. He assured the Hebrews that God had heard his prayers and had promised to make the water such as they wanted, provided they would obey him in whatever he told them to do, and not in a careless or half-hearted way. When they asked what they had to do to have the water changed for the better, he told the strongest men standing there to draw up water, and said that once most of it had been drawn off, what remained would be fit to drink. So they labored at it until the water was so stirred and cleansed that it was drinkable. [d]

Moving on from there, they came to Elim. From a distance the place looked good, for there was a grove of palm trees; but when they came near, it turned out to be a poor place. There were no more than seventy palms, and they were stunted, low-growing trees for lack of water, for the country all around was parched. The springs, twelve in number, supplied no moisture enough to water the trees and make them thrive and bear; they were more a few damp spots than springs, and since the water neither broke out of the ground nor overflowed, it could not water the trees properly. When they dug into the sand they found no water, and if they caught a few drops in their hands, it was useless because of the mud. The trees were too weak to bear fruit, for want of enough water to nourish and revive them. So they blamed their leader and made bitter complaints against him. They said that their miserable state and the hardships they had suffered were his doing; for they had now been on the road a full thirty days, had used up all the provisions they had brought with them, and had met with no relief, so that they were in despair. Fixing their minds on nothing but their present misfortunes, they could not remember the deliverances they had received from God, and through the virtue and wisdom of Moses as well. So they were furious with their leader and set themselves eagerly to stone him, as the direct cause of their present miseries.

But Moses himself, while the crowd was enraged and bitterly set against him, relied cheerfully on God and on his own awareness of the care he had taken of his people. He came into the middle of them, even while they were shouting against him with stones in their hands to finish him off. He had an agreeable presence and great power to persuade the people by his words, and so he began to calm their anger. He urged them not to dwell too much on their present hardships, in case the benefits they had received before should slip from their memory because of them. By no means, he said, should they let their present discomfort drive from their minds the great and wonderful favors and gifts they had received from God; they should rather expect deliverance from the troubles they could not free themselves from, by means of the divine providence that watched over them. It was likely, he said, that God was testing their virtue and training their patience by these hardships, so that it might be seen what courage they had and what memory they kept of his former wonders on their behalf, and whether they would think of them now, in the miseries they were feeling. As things stood, he told them, they did not seem to be truly good men, either in patience or in remembering what had been so successfully done for them. Sometimes they showed contempt for God and his commands, though it was by those very commands that they had left Egypt; and sometimes they behaved badly toward God’s servant, though he had never deceived them, either in anything he said or in anything he had ordered them to do at God’s command.

He also reminded them of everything that had happened: how the Egyptians were destroyed when they tried to hold them back against God’s command; how the very same river was bloody and undrinkable for the Egyptians but sweet and drinkable for them; how they had gone by a new road through the sea, which fled far back from them, and by that very means were saved themselves while they saw their enemies destroyed; and how, when they lacked weapons, God gave them plenty. So he went through every instance in which, when they seemed on the point of destruction, God had saved them in an astonishing way. God still had the same power, he said, and even now they should not despair of his providence over them. So he urged them to stay calm, and to consider that help would not come too late, even if it did not come at once, so long as it came before they suffered any great misfortune. They ought to reason this way: God was delaying his help not because he had no regard for them, but because he wished first to test their courage and how much they valued their freedom — to learn whether they had souls great enough to bear hunger and thirst for its sake, or whether they would rather be slaves, as cattle are slaves to the owners who feed them generously, but only to make them more useful in their service. As for himself, he said, he was not so concerned for his own safety; if he died unjustly, he would not count it any hardship. His concern was for them, in case, by stoning him, they should be thought to be condemning God himself.

In this way Moses calmed the people, kept them from stoning him, and brought them to regret what they had been about to do. And because he thought their need made their anger less unjustifiable, he believed he ought to turn to God in prayer and supplication. He went up onto a height and asked God for some help for the people and some way out of their want, since in him, and in him alone, lay their hope of being saved; and he asked him to forgive what necessity had driven the people to do, since such is human nature — hard to please, and quick to complain in hard times. God promised that he would take care of them and give them the help they wanted. When Moses had heard this from God, he came down to the people. As soon as they saw him joyful at the promises he had received from God, their sad faces turned glad. So he stood among them and told them he had come to bring them deliverance from God out of their present distress. A little later a vast number of quails arrived — a bird more plentiful around this Arabian Gulf than anywhere else. They came flying over the sea and hovered over the Hebrews until, worn out by their long flight and flying very close to the ground, as they usually do, they fell down among them. The Hebrews caught them and satisfied their hunger with them, supposing that this was the way God meant to supply them with food. At this Moses gave thanks to God for sending his help so suddenly, and sooner than he had promised.

Soon after this first supply of food, God sent them a second. As Moses was lifting up his hands in prayer, a dew fell, and when Moses found it sticking to his hands, he supposed this too had come from God as food for them. He tasted it and found it pleasant. Seeing that the people did not know what it was and thought it was snow, such as usually fell at that time of year, he told them that this dew did not fall from the sky in the way they imagined, but had come to keep them alive and feed them. So he tasted it himself and gave them some of it, so that they could be sure of what he told them. They followed their leader’s example and liked the food, for it was as sweet and pleasant to the taste as honey, while in substance it was like bdellium, one of the sweet spices, and in size equal to a coriander seed. They were very eager to gather it, but they were all ordered to gather an equal amount, about 2 quarts each, every day, since the food would not run out on them; this was so that the weaker would not be unable to get their share because the strong overpowered them in collecting it. But when the strong men gathered more than their appointed measure, they had no more than the others; they only tired themselves more in gathering it, for they found no more than 2 quarts apiece. And what they kept over to the next day did them no good at all, since it spoiled, both from worms breeding in it and from its turning bitter. So divine and wonderful a food was this! It also made up for the lack of other kinds of food in those who lived on it. And even now, in all that region, this manna comes down like rain, as Moses then obtained from God, who sent it to the people for their food. The Hebrews call this food manna, for the word man in our language asks a question: “What is this?” So the Hebrews rejoiced at what had been sent them from heaven. They lived on this food for forty years, all the time they were in the wilderness. [e]

As soon as they moved on from there, they came to Rephidim, desperate with thirst. In the days before, they had come upon a few small springs, but now they found the ground entirely without water, and they were in a bad way. Again they turned their anger on Moses. He first got out of the way of the crowd’s fury, and then turned to prayer, begging God that as he had given them food when they needed it most, so he would give them drink, since the gift of food was worth nothing to them while they had nothing to drink. God did not delay long, but promised Moses that he would provide them a spring and plenty of water from a place where they did not expect any. He commanded him to strike with his staff the rock they saw lying there, and to receive from it plenty of what they needed; for he had seen to it that drink would come to them without any labor or toil. When Moses had received this command from God, he came to the people, who were waiting and watching for him, for they had already seen him coming quickly down from his height. As soon as he arrived, he told them that God would deliver them from their present distress and had granted them an unexpected favor: a river would flow for their sake out of the rock. They were dismayed at hearing it, supposing they would have to cut the rock to pieces, worn out as they were by thirst and by their journey. But Moses only struck the rock with his staff and opened a passage, and out of it burst water in great abundance, and very clear. They were astonished at this wonder and, as it were, quenched their thirst at the very sight of it. So they drank this pleasant, sweet water — and such it seemed, as one might well expect when God was the giver. They also marveled at how Moses was honored by God, and they made grateful offerings of sacrifice to God for his care of them. The scripture that is laid up in the temple tells us how God foretold to Moses that water would be brought out of the rock in this way. [h]