You must not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.

Examine me, O Lord, and test me! Evaluate my inner thoughts and motives!

They willfully challenged God by asking for food to satisfy their appetite.

They again challenged God, and offended the Holy One of Israel.

In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving for meat; they challenged God in the desert.

“If someone should attempt a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can refrain from speaking?

Yet they challenged and defied the sovereign God, and did not obey his commands.

where your ancestors challenged my authority, and tried my patience, even though they had seen my work.

But Ahaz responded, “I don’t want to ask; I don’t want to put the Lord to a test.”

So the warden agreed to their proposal and tested them for ten days.

When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon, she came to challenge him with difficult questions.

I have examined all this by wisdom; I said, “I am determined to comprehend this” – but it was beyond my grasp.

David strapped on his sword over his fighting attire and tried to walk around, but he was not used to them. David said to Saul, “I can’t walk in these things, for I’m not used to them.” So David removed them.

Some time after these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham replied.

He cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When Moses threw it into the water, the water became safe to drink. There the Lord made for them a binding ordinance, and there he tested them.

fed you in the desert with manna (which your ancestors had never before known) so that he might by humbling you test you and eventually bring good to you.

Of Levi he said: Your Thummim and Urim belong to your godly one, whose authority you challenged at Massah, and with whom you argued at the waters of Meribah.

Joshua left those nations to test Israel. I wanted to see whether or not the people would carefully walk in the path marked out by the Lord, as their ancestors were careful to do.”

These were the nations the Lord permitted to remain so he could use them to test Israel – he wanted to test all those who had not experienced battle against the Canaanites.

They were left to test Israel, so the Lord would know if his people would obey the commands he gave their ancestors through Moses.