Psalms 78:11

78:11 They forgot what he had done, ¹ 

the amazing things he had shown them.

Exodus 15:17

15:17 You will bring them in ²  and plant them in the mountain ³  of your inheritance,

in the place you made ⁴  for your residence, O Lord,

the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.

Exodus 15:24

15:24 So the people murmured ⁵  against Moses, saying, “What can ⁶  we drink?”

Exodus 16:2

16:2 The entire company ⁷  of Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron in the desert.

Exodus 17:7

17:7 He called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contending of the Israelites and because of their testing the Lord, ⁸  saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

[78:11]  ¹ tn Heb “his deeds.”

[15:17]  ² tn The verb is imperfect.

[15:17]  ³ sn The “mountain” and the “place” would be wherever Yahweh met with his people. It here refers to Canaan, the land promised to the patriarchs.

[15:17]  ⁴ tn The verb is perfect tense, referring to Yahweh’s previous choice of the holy place.

[15:24]  ⁵ tn The verb וַיִּלֹנוּ (vayyillonu) from לוּן (lun) is a much stronger word than “to grumble” or “to complain.” It is used almost exclusively in the wilderness wandering stories, to describe the rebellion of the Israelites against God (see also Ps 59:14-15). They were not merely complaining – they were questioning God’s abilities and motives. The action is something like a parliamentary vote of no confidence.

[15:24]  ⁶ tn The imperfect tense here should be given a potential nuance: “What can we drink?” since the previous verse reports that they were not able to drink the water.

[16:2]  ⁷ tn Or “community” or “assembly.”

[17:7]  ⁸ sn The name Massah (מַסָּה, massah) means “Proving”; it is derived from the verb “test, prove, try.” And the name Meribah (מְרִיבָה, mÿrivah) means “Strife”; it is related to the verb “to strive, quarrel, contend.” The choice of these names for the place would serve to remind Israel for all time of this failure with God. God wanted this and all subsequent generations to know how unbelief challenges God. And yet, he gave them water. So in spite of their failure, he remained faithful to his promises. The incident became proverbial, for it is the warning in Ps 95:7-8, which is quoted in Heb 3:15: “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness. There your fathers tested me and tried me, and they saw my works for forty years.” The lesson is clear enough: to persist in this kind of unbelief could only result in the loss of divine blessing. Or, to put it another way, if they refused to believe in the power of God, they would wander powerless in the wilderness. They had every reason to believe, but they did not. (Note that this does not mean they are unbelievers, only that they would not take God at his word.)