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must continually have wanted it in their passage through the Wilnerness, if GoD had not thus miraculously supplied them. 2. Some passages in the Psalms are thought to imply, that a river from the rock attended them in their journeyings. 3. It is hinted, that a text in Deuteronomy confirms this opinion; and lastly, it is pretended, that St. Paul says expressly, that the rock followed them.

1. It is said, that the Israelites never wanted water, after this supply from the rock at Horeb, until they came to Kadesh; though the wilderness they travelled through was so dry a place, that they could not have found water in it, without some continual miracle.' To this I answer, 1. We are no where told in Scripture, that God wrought this particular miracle upon the rock, in order to continue a supply of water for the Israelites, during the whole time of their journeying in the Wilderness; and if a miracle was really necessary, why this rather than some other? The Israelites knew how to dig wells when they wanted water; and it is probable that they dug many in their passage through the Wilderness, as 'we read they dug one at Beer; and it is reasonable to suppose that God might frequently give them water, by causing them when they dug for it, to find watersprings in a dry ground; than to suppose that a mountainous rock moved after them in their journeyings, or that any streams from it, became a river, and

Numb. xxi. 13.
Psalm cvii. 35.

! See ver. 16.

was made to form itself a channel to flow to them in all their movements. 2. But though the Wilderness was indeed a dry place, and may in general terms be called a dry and thirsty land, where no water is ;* though the Israelites complained of it as such,' and the heathen writers give it this character; yet we must not take their expressions so strictly, as to imagine, that no water was to be found in any parts of it. Strabo speaks of fosses of water in the driest desarts ;' and from Diodorus we may collect, that in the most unpromising parts of this country, there were proper places to sink wells, which would afford abundance of water. The Israelites might be reduced to difficulties in many places, but unquestionably in others they found receptacles of water of divers sorts; so that the true reason, why we read of no miraculous supply of water from the time of their leaving Horeb until they came to Kadesh, may be their not necessarily wanting such a supply in that interval. But,

II. It is represented, that from Psalms lxxviii. 16-20. cv. 41, it may be justly inferred, that rivers

Psalm Ixiii. 1.

Numbers xxi. 5.

appos na avudgos 15, Diodor. Sic. lib. 2. p. 95. vid. Strab. Geog, lib. 16.

Διαμμος γη και λυπρα φοινικας έχασα ολιγές -жать орих wara. Strab. Geog. lib. 16.

τα κατα γαρ την ανυδρον χωραν λεγομένην κατασκευάζοντες ευκαιρία Φρεαταχρώνται δαψιλεσι ποτοις. s. Diodor. lib. 2. p. 92. * πολλαχε συνοδός των ομβριων υδάτων.

of water flowed from the rock after the Israelites, in their several marches. I answer: The expressions cited from the Psalmist prove only, that the rock smote by Moses poured forth a large quantity of water. GOD brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out, they ran in the dry places like a river. Philo the Jew relates, that upon Moses striking the rock, the water poured out like a torrent, affording them not only a sufficient quantity for the allaying their present thirst, but to fill their water vessels; in order to carry away water with them, when they marched forwards. A very considerable supply must be wanted by so large a multitude, and the words of the Psalmist well describe such a supply; but they do in no wise intimate, that rivers from the rock followed them, when they left the place where the supply was given. But,

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III. Moses, Deut. ix. 21. mentions a river, or brook, which descended out of the mount, and flowed near the camp, after the Israelites were departed from Rephidim, and were encamped at mount Sinai. Now if this brook was a river, which flowed from mount Horeb, it could be none other, than that which was

• Παιει πετραν, η δε κρηνηδόν εκχειται, ως μη τότε μόνον παρα. σχειν ακός Διψός, αλλά και προς πλείω χρόνον τοσαυταις μυριάσιν. αφθονιαν ποτε τα γας ιδρεα πανία επληρωσαν, ως και πρότερον απο των πηγών, αι πικραι μεν ησαν φύσει, μετεβάλοντο δε επιφροσυνη Уна Topos to yλuxion. Philo de Vit. Mosis, 1. 1.

P Exodus xix. 2.

caused by Moses striking the rock; for before that miracle, there was no water; and if it came from hence, it seems evident, that the stream of this water flowed near the camp, after they had left Rephidim, the place where the supply was first given. But a few observations will set this fact in a clear light: and, 1. I think it evident, that no supply of water was given to the Israelites from any rock at Rephidim. The direction to Moses, when he cried unto the LORD, was to take the elders of Israel with him, and to go from Rephidim, the place where the Israelites were encamped, unto Horeb, and there to smite a rock, in order to obtain water; so that the supply of water was not obtained at Rephidim, where the Israelites were encamped, but at a place some distance from Rephidim, whither not the people but the elders of Israel accompanied Moses, and where what he did was done, not in the sight of the congregation, but in the sight of the elders of Israel. 2. Horeb and Sinai were near and contiguous to one another, being only different cliffs of one and the same mountain, which appears evident from several passages in the books of Moses. When GoD delivered the commandments in an audible voice from mount Sinai,' he is said to speak unto them in Horeb. And when the people stood before the LORD their GoD, under the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire," which mountain

Exodus xvii. 5, 6.

• Ibid. xx.
Chap. iv. 10, 11.

VOL. III.

Ibid.

* Deut. i. 19.

was unquestionably mount Sinai," they stood before the LORD in Horeb. And in the day of their assembly, when they desired not to hear the voice of the LORD any more," which petition was made, when they were assembled at mount, Sinai," they are said to be at Horeb. From these and many other passages, which might be cited, it appears, either according to St. Jerome, that Horeb and Sinai were but two names for one and the same mount; or rather they were two mountains so contiguous, that whilst the people lay encamped at the foot of them, they might be said to be at either. Therefore, 3. The water which Moses obtained from the rock at Horeb, might supply the camp all the time the Israelites were at Sinai, without the rock's moving from its place; for they were encamped very near the rock from whence this supply of water was given, all the time they were at Sinai. 4. We need not suppose, that the water which God was pleased to give at Horeb, ceased to flow, as soon as the Israelites were relieved by it. It is more reasonable to imagine, that Gop directed Moses to strike a place where there was naturally a spring, though, until the rock was opened, the water was bound down to subterraneous passages; but after it had taken vent, it might become a fountain, and continue to flow, not only whilst the Israelites continued in these parts, but

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a

Exodus xix. 18.

Chap. xviii. 16.

y Deut. iv. 10.

Exodus xx. 19. b Deut. xviii. 16. Mihi autem videtur, quòd duplici nomine idem mons, Anne Sina, nunc Choreb vocetur. Hieron. de locis Heb.

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