Exodus 17:2 · Bible study
Exodus 17:2 Commentary: Quarreling That Tests the Lord
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Why does Moses call the people's demand for water a 'test' of Yahweh? The Hebrew roots reveal unbelief beneath the complaint.
Research Summary
- Meaning: The people's demand for water becomes a test of God's power and presence, exposing their unbelief.
- Key words: ריב (riv, to strive/contend); נסה (nasah, to test/try/prove, neutral in tone, not enticement to sin).
- Main debate: Could the people be excused because of extreme thirst? (Barnes notes the trial's severity, but commentators agree the sin was unbelief.)
- Theological theme: Covenant loyalty requires trust in God's provision even when circumstances seem contradictory to His promises.
- Best use: A cautionary narrative against hardening the heart in times of testing (Psalm 95; Hebrews 3-4).
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
So the people contended with Moses, “Give us water to drink.” “Why do you contend with me?” Moses replied. “Why do you test the LORD?”
WEB World English Bible 2000
Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?”
KJV King James Version 1769
Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Wherefore the people strove with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why strive ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt Jehovah?
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
and the people strive with Moses, and say, `Give us water, and we drink.' And Moses saith to them, `What? --ye strive with me, what? --ye try Jehovah?'
Darby Darby Bible 1890
And the people contended with Moses, and said, Give us water, that we may drink! And Moses said to them, Why do ye dispute with me? Why do ye tempt Jehovah?
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
And they chode with Moses, and said: Give us water, that we may drink. And Moses answered them: Why chide you with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Y altercó el pueblo con Moisés, y dijeron: Danos agua que bebamos. Y Moisés les dijo: ¿ Por qué altercáis conmigo? ¿ por qué tentáis á Jehová?
E brigou o povo com Moisés, e disseram: Dá-nos água que bebamos. E Moisés lhes disse: Por que brigais comigo? Por que tentais ao SENHOR?
Alors le peuple chercha querelle à Moïse. Ils dirent: Donnez-nous de l’ eau à boire. Moïse leur répondit: Pourquoi me cherchez-vous querelle? Pourquoi tentez-vous l’ Éternel?
Und sie zankten mit Mose und sprachen: Gebt uns Wasser, daß wir trinken. Mose sprach zu ihnen: Was zankt ihr mit mir? Warum versucht ihr den HERRN?
Toen twistte het volk met Mozes, en zeide: Geeft gijlieden ons water, dat wij drinken! Mozes dan zeide tot hen: Wat twist gij met mij? Waarom verzoekt gij den HEERE?
Allora il popolo contese con Mosè, e disse: “Dateci dell’acqua da bere”. E Mosè rispose loro: “Perché contendete con me? perché tentate l’Eterno?”
Przetoż swarzył się lud z Mojżeszem, mówiąc: Dajcie nam wody, abyśmy pili. Którym odpowiedział Mojżesz: Cóż się swarzycie ze mną? a czemu kusicie Pana?
И укорял народ Моисея, и говорили: дайте нам воды пить. И сказал им Моисей: что вы укоряете меня? что искушаете Господа?
所以 與 摩西 爭鬧，說：「給 我們 水 喝吧！」摩西 對他們 說：「你們為甚麼 與我 爭鬧？為甚麼 試探 耶和華呢？」
So the people were angry with Moses, and said, Give us water for drinking. And Moses said, Why are you angry with me? and why do you put God to the test?
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Exodus 17:2
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that the people's quarrel with Moses was in fact a test of God. Calvin argues that their 'impiety against God' and 'malice and unkindness' stem from forgetting past miracles. Gill notes that the people directed their speech to both Moses and Aaron, requiring of them what only God could do, and thus they 'tempted the Lord Christ.' Matthew Henry sees the root as 'discontent and distrust.' Barnes emphasizes that the severity of the trial, thirst in the burning desert, should not be overlooked, but the pattern of unbelief persists: miracles fail to produce a habit of faith. The Cambridge Bible points out that the Hebrew word for 'test' (נָסָה, nasah) is neutral, meaning to prove or try, not to entice to evil. So the people are challenging God to prove His presence and power. Moses' response redirects the accusation to Yahweh because the leader is God's representative; a quarrel with him is a quarrel with God.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: The people's demand for water was an accusation against Moses that Moses rightly identified as a test of Yahweh's power and presence.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Nature of the sin | The people's complaint was a sinful testing of God. | Some interpreters emphasize unbelief as the core sin (Calvin, Gill); others name ingratitude and impatience (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown). Both are present, but the emphasis differs. |
| Legitimacy of lament | Honest petition is not the same as testing God. | Traditions differ on where the line is drawn. Some see the lament psalms as a model for honest complaint; others warn that any complaint that questions God's goodness risks becoming a test. |
| Moses' role | Moses rightly redirects the accusation to God, since leaders represent God's authority. | Some note that Moses himself later fails in a similar test at Meribah (Numbers 20), which raises questions about how leaders can guard against their own frustration. |
| Meaning of 'test' (nasah) | The Hebrew verb means to prove or try, not to entice to evil. | Some Christians argue that testing God is always forbidden; others point to passages like Malachi 3:10 where God invites Israel to 'test' Him in tithing, suggesting the context determines the legitimacy of the test. |
Historical & Cultural Context
The Israelites had just traveled from the wilderness of Sin, a journey of several stages. According to Numbers 33:12-14, they camped at Dofkah and Alush before reaching Rephidim. Keil and Delitzsch discuss the likely location of Rephidim: near Horeb, in the Wadi es-Sheikh area, where the valley opens into the plain of er-Rahah. Water is scarce along this route. The people had experienced a miraculous supply at Marah (sweetened bitter water) and Elim (twelve springs), but those were behind them. Now, in Rephidim, there was no water. The text records 'the people thirsted there for water' (v.3).
The Hebrew word for 'strive' (רִיב, riv) carries legal overtones: to argue a case in court (Cambridge Bible). So the people are not merely complaining; they are lodging a formal grievance against Moses, and by extension against God who appointed him. Their demand, 'Give us water', is an imperative, plural, directed at both Moses and Aaron (Gill). It is not a petition but an accusation. In the ancient Near East, a leader was responsible for the group's provision, and failure implied divine disfavor. The people's question, 'Is the Lord among us or not?' (v.7) makes explicit what this quarrel implies. They are testing whether God is really guiding them, doubting His covenant presence. This follows the pattern of murmuring at Marah (Exodus 15:24) and the wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16:2-3). Each time God provides, but faith does not take root. The place will be named Massah (testing) and Meribah (quarreling) as a perpetual memorial of this crisis.
Textual Notes
The supplied sources note no significant textual variants for Exodus 17:2. The verse is consistent across the Masoretic Text, Septuagint, and ancient versions. The initial conjunction (וַ/יָּ֤רֶב) is rendered 'and' or 'therefore' in different translations, but this does not affect the meaning: the event follows naturally from the setting in v.1.
Reception History
This verse has resonated through Jewish and Christian tradition. The place names Massah and Meribah appear repeatedly as a warning (Deuteronomy 6:16; 9:22; 33:8; Psalm 81:7; 95:8-9). The Psalmist uses the event to exhort the congregation not to harden their hearts, and the writer of Hebrews (3:7-11) applies this warning directly to believers. Early church fathers, such as Augustine, saw in the rock struck by Moses a type of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4) who provides living water. Calvin and Luther used the passage to teach that outward circumstances do not override God's covenant faithfulness. In modern preaching, it addresses the human tendency to question God's goodness in suffering.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The Crisis: Thirst in the Desert. Physical need becomes a test of faith. The journey was divinely ordered (v.1), yet it led to a place with no water. God's guidance does not guarantee comfort.
- The Complaint: Quarreling That Accuses God. The people 'contend' (riv) with Moses as if he were the cause. Moses names their true target: Yahweh. Their demand implies God is absent or unable to help.
- The Correction: Why Test the Lord? Moses uses the same verb (nasah) that God used of Abraham (Gen 22:1) and will use of Israel (Exod 16:4). Testing God is the opposite of trust. The issue is not water but who God is to them.
Five-point outline
- The Setting: Divinely led into need (v.1). God's command brought them to Rephidim.
- The Demand: From thirst to accusation (v.2a). The imperative 'give' presumes entitlement.
- The Root: Forgetting God's past faithfulness (compare Exodus 14-16). Gratitude evaporates with thirst.
- The Sin: Testing the Lord's power and presence (v.2b, v.7). The test is not an experiment but a challenge.
- The Name: Massah and Meribah as warning. The place memorializes what unbelief looks like.
Illustration hooks
- A child on a long car trip who keeps asking 'Are we there yet?' doubting the parent's navigation despite past evidence.
- Employees in a struggling company who blame management for lack of resources rather than trusting the plan.
- A person in a prolonged illness who begins to question God's care, remembering past healings but struggling to trust in the present.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Is it wrong to express frustration to God when we are desperate?
- How do we know when a complaint crosses into testing God?
- Does God want us to suppress honest feelings in prayer, or is there a faithful way to lament?
Leading a Discussion
This passage raises an uncomfortable question: when we complain about our circumstances, are we indirectly accusing God? The people of Israel were thirsty, and their demand for water quickly became a test of Yahweh's presence. Moses forces them, and us, to see what lies beneath the surface of our complaints.
Discussion questions
- Observation: What exactly did the people say to Moses (v.2)? What does their wording reveal about their attitude toward him?
- Observation: Trace the pattern of murmuring in Exodus 15, 17. What changes, and what stays the same, in each crisis?
- Interpretation: Why does Moses respond by asking, 'Why do you test Yahweh?' How is quarreling with the leader a form of testing God?
- Interpretation: The Hebrew verb nasah means 'to put to the proof.' How is this different from tempting someone to sin? What does it mean to put God to the test?
- Interpretation: Look at v.7: 'Is the Lord among us or not?' What does that question reveal about the heart of the conflict?
- Application: When you face a pressing need, how can you express it to God without falling into the pattern of testing Him? What role should remembering past faithfulness play?
- Application: Hebrews 3:7-11 uses this event to warn against a 'hardened heart.' What would it look like in your life to keep a soft heart toward God in difficult circumstances?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Genesis 30:1 | When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will die.” |
| Genesis 30:2 | Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in God’s place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” |
| Exodus 5:21 | They said to them, “May Yahweh look at you and judge, because you have made us a stench to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us!” |
| Exodus 14:11 | They said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you treated us this way, to bring us out of Egypt? |
| Exodus 14:12 | Isn’t this the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” |
| Exodus 15:24 | The people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” |
| Exodus 16:2 | The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness; |
| Exodus 16:3 | and the children of Israel said to them, “We wish that we had died by Yahweh’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
9 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke emphasizes that the people's complaints against Moses were actually directed at God himself. Since God was their true leader, every murmur against Moses was a temptation of God, questioning his power and goodness after all the proofs he had already given them.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes observes that the Israelites' repeated miracles never created lasting faith, which is their characteristic failing. Yet he insists the reader must also consider the extreme hardship they faced: burning desert, fainting from thirst. That context, he argues, matters when evaluating their conduct.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin notes that the people's quarrel with Moses reveals their deeper unbelief: if they had any faith, they would have prayed directly to God rather than accusing their leader. Their real sin is doubting whether God is present and able to help, which dishonors both His power and His promises.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The Cambridge Bible note clarifies that the Hebrew word often translated "tempt" actually means to test or prove, not to entice into wrongdoing. The Israelites were not trying to provoke God but to challenge His presence and power by doubting whether He was truly among them and able to supply their needs.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
Wherefore the people contended with Moses, and sayde, Giue vs water that we may drinke. And Moses sayde vnto them, Why contende yee with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill stresses that the people wrongly complained to Moses as if he had brought them into the wilderness and could produce water at will. They should have asked Moses to pray to God, who had already provided for them repeatedly. Their real offense was testing the Lord Christ himself, questioning his power and patience.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB sees the Israelites' complaint for water not as mere grumbling but as a direct challenge to God. He lists the hidden offenses packed into one act: opposition to Moses, distrust of God's care, indifference to His kindness, unbelief in His providence, and a deliberate testing of God's patience.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch identify Rephidim at the opening of the Wady es-Sheikh valley into the plain of er Rahah, based on travel distances and the need for space. They stress that God had the elders witness the miracle at Horeb so they could testify it was not a pre-existing spring, and that Moses struck the rock with his staff to reaffirm his divine authority before the people.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Matthew Henry observes that the Israelites were faithfully following God's command yet still arrived at a place with no water. He draws out the principle that being in the way of duty does not prevent hardship; Providence allows such trials to test faith and to make God’s glory shine brighter in the relief He provides.