Miniature of Moses hitting the rock in the desert to bring forth water with two Israelites behind his back.
Moses Strikes the Rock in Exodus and Numbers: One Story or Two?
In Numbers 20, when the Israelites are without water, God tells Moses to get water from a stone, which he does by striking it, and is punished. Yet in Exodus 17, Moses does the same thing and the story ends positively. What is the relationship between these two accounts? Remarkably, R. Joseph Bekhor Shor says that they are two accounts of the same story.
Published: July 11, 2019
|
Last Updated: September 7, 2026
This analysis is based, with minor modifications, on Jonathan Jacobs, בכור שורו הדר לו: ר’ יוסף בכור שור בין המשכיות לחידוש [Bekhor Shoro Hadar Lo: R. Joseph Bekhor Shor between Continuity and Innovation] (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2017), 230–244 [233–236]. See there for further examples of Bekhor Shor’s use of this interpretation.
See, e.g., Martin Noth, Numbers: A Commentary, trans., James D. Martin, Old Testament Library (London: S.C.M. Press, 1968), 145–147; translation of: Das vierte Buch Mose, Numeri (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1966); Philip J. Budd, Numbers, Word Bible Commentary 5, (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1984), 216–217; Eryl W. Davies, Numbers, New Cambridge Bible Commentary, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 202; Jacob Milgrom, “כשוף, מונותיאיזים וטעויותיו של משה” [Magic, Monotheism, and the Errors of Moses], Beit Mikra 124 (1990): 45–46. Only Milgrom mentions Bekhor Shor.
דברים לג:ח תֻּמֶּיךָ וְאוּרֶיךָ
לְאִישׁ חֲסִידֶךָ
אֲשֶׁר נִסִּיתוֹ בְּמַסָּה
תְּרִיבֵהוּ עַל מֵי מְרִיבָה.Deut 33:8 Your Tummim and Urim
Shall be with Your faithful one,
Whom You tested at Massah,
Challenged at the Waters of Meribah.Bekhor Shor supports this with a famous example:
כגון פרשת מרגלים, דכתיב במשנה תורה שאמרו ישראל 'נשלחה אנשים' (דב' א, כב), וב'שלח לך' לא פירש, וכן הרבה.
An example is the passage of the spies, as it is written in Deuteronomy that the Israelites said “Let us send men” (Deut. 1:22), and in Shelach Lecha it did not specify. There are many such cases.
Editor’s note: The contradiction between the way the spy story is told in Deuteronomy and how it is told in Numbers is a famous problem. For discussion, see "Whose Idea Was It to Send Scouts?" TheTorah.com (2013); David Ben-Gad HaCohen, "Using Deuteronomy to Fill in the Lacunae of Numbers' Spy Story," TheTorah.com (2016).
Some have erroneously thought that Ibn Ezra, citing “many,” quoted an interpretation identical to that of Bekhor Shor, so that Bekhor Shor is not the first to propose this bold interpretation. Ibn Ezra (Num 20:8) wrote as follows:
נתן מימיו – בעבור מימיו. טעו רבים, ואמרו: כי זה הסלע הוא הצור (שמות י"ז:ה'-ו'). ואלה עורי לב לא ידעו כי הצור הוא בחורב, וזה הסלע היה בקצה ארץ אדום, כי בקדש היה.
“To yield its water”—On account of its water, many have erred and said that this sela [boulder] is the tzur [rock, in Exodus]. Yet they are blind of heart, not knowing that the tzur was at Horeb and this sela on the edge of the land of Edom, for it was in Kadesh.
According to this interpretation, the rock that Moses struck in Numbers 20 is the same rock that he struck in Exodus 17. However, according to this interpretation, the incidents are not identical, but two different incidents that took place at different times in the same place. Ultimately, therefore, the interpretation cited by Ibn Ezra proposes a far less daring understanding than the proposal made by Bekhor Shor.
