Psalms 78:15-16

78:15 He broke open rocks in the wilderness,

and gave them enough water to fill the depths of the sea. ¹ 

78:16 He caused streams to flow from the rock,

and made the water flow like rivers.

Psalms 78:20

78:20 Yes, ²  he struck a rock and water flowed out,

streams gushed forth.

But can he also give us food?

Will he provide meat for his people?”

Psalms 114:8

114:8 who turned a rock into a pool of water,

a hard rock into springs of water! ³ 

Exodus 17:6

17:6 I will be standing ⁴  before you there on ⁵  the rock in Horeb, and you will strike ⁶  the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink.” ⁷  And Moses did so in plain view ⁸  of the elders of Israel.

Numbers 20:11

20:11 Then Moses raised his hand, and struck the rock twice with his staff. And water came out abundantly. So the community drank, and their beasts drank too.

Nehemiah 9:15

9:15 You provided bread from heaven for them in their time of hunger, and you brought forth water from the rock for them in their time of thirst. You told them to enter in order to possess the land that you had sworn ⁹  to give them.

Isaiah 48:21

48:21 They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions;

he makes water flow out of a rock for them;

he splits open a rock and water flows out.’ ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 48:1

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ¹¹ 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ¹² 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ¹³  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ¹⁴ 

Colossians 1:4

1:4 since ¹⁵  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints.

¹ tn Heb “and caused them to drink, like the depths, abundantly.”

² tn Heb “look.”

³ sn In v. 8 the psalmist recalls the event(s) recorded in Exod 17:6 and/or Num 20:11 (see also Deut 8:15 and Ps 78:15-16, 20).

⁴ tn The construction uses הִנְנִי עֹמֵד (hinni ’omed) to express the futur instans or imminent future of the verb: “I am going to be standing.”

⁵ tn Or “by” (NIV, NLT).

⁶ tn The form is a Hiphil perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it follows the future nuance of the participle and so is equivalent to an imperfect tense nuance of instruction.

⁷ tn These two verbs are also perfect tenses with vav (ו) consecutive: “and [water] will go out…and [the people] will drink.” But the second verb is clearly the intent or the result of the water gushing from the rock, and so it may be subordinated.

⁸ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

⁹ tn Heb “had lifted your hand.”

¹⁰ sn The translation above (present tense) assumes that this verse describes God’s provision for returning Babylonian exiles (see v. 20; 35:6; 49:10) in terms reminiscent of the Exodus from Egypt (see Exod 17:6).

¹¹ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

¹² tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

¹³ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

¹⁵ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).