Exodus 17:2

Exo 17:2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?

Ver. 2. The people did chide with Moses.] As they did before for bread. And as thirst is the more eager appetite, so they are more eager and earnest for water than they were for bread.

Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?] viz., Whether he be amongst you and be able by miracle to relieve you.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exo 17:2. Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? — By distrusting his power, providence, and faithfulness, upon such a small occasion; by refusing to submit to his will, and to wait upon him in humble fervent prayer for relief; and instead thereof quarrelling with me, as if it were my fault that you want water, and by murmuring against God under my name.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17:2 testing the Lord is explained in 17:7. They doubted that God was really with them or cared for them, and they demanded that he prove his presence and care. God invites a test based on faith (“I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief,” Mark 9:24), but he abhors a test based on doubt (i.e., I don’t believe, and I think God should prove himself to me, as in John 6:30). The test based on doubt makes us the judge and God the defendant.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Why distrust you God? why look ye not for succor of him without murmuring against us?

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink, &c.--The want of water was a privation, the severity of which we cannot estimate, and it was a great trial to the Israelites, but their conduct on this new occasion was outrageous; it amounted even to "a tempting of the Lord." It was an opposition to His minister, a distrust of His care, an indifference to His kindness, an unbelief in His providence, a trying of His patience and fatherly forbearance.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. Why chide ye with me?] God is your leader, complain to him; Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? As he is your leader, all your murmurings against me he considers as directed against himself; why therefore do ye tempt him? Has he not given you sufficient proofs that he can destroy his enemies and support his friends? And is he not among you to do you good? Ex 17:7. Why therefore do ye doubt his power and goodness, and thus provoke him to treat you as his enemies?

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) The people did chide.—Water is scanty along the route by which we have supposed Rephidim to have been reached. Such a supply as the people may have brought with them from Elim would have been exhausted. They would have looked forward to Rephidim both for their immediate necessity and for replenishing their water-skins. They would be suffering both from thirst and disappointment. The needs of their children and their cattle (Exo_17:3) would be an aggravation of their pain. They would see no hope in the future. Under the circumstances we cannot be surprised at their “chiding.” Nothing but a very lively faith, or an utter resignation to the will of God, could have made a people patient and submissive in such an extremity.

Give us water.—It was not faith that spoke in these words, but wrath. They had no belief that Moses could give them water, and “were almost ready to stone” him (Exo_17:4).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. Wherefore] the Heb. is simply And.

strove, i.e. disputed, expostulated. The word means properly to argue a case in a court of law; but it is often used more generally. Cf. as here, in the similar narrative, Num_20:3; Num_20:13; also Gen_26:20-22; Gen_31:36 (‘chode’), Jdg_11:25. (Not the word so rendered in Exo_2:13, Exo_21:22, which means to quarrel or fight.)

why [as just before] do ye put Jehovah to the proof?] by doubting, viz. (v. 7) whether He is really in your midst (cf. Num_11:20; Num_14:14), and able to supply your needs. Tempt is a misleading rendering: for to ‘tempt,’ in modern English, has acquired the sense of provoking or enticing a person in order that he may act in a particular way: whereas the Heb. nissâh is a neutral word, and means to test or prove a person to see whether he will act in a particular way (Exo_16:4), or whether the character he bears is well established (1Ki_10:1). God thus ‘proves’ a person, or puts him to the test, when He subjects him to a trial, to ascertain what his character is, or whether his loyalty to Him is sincere (Exo_16:4, Deu_8:2; Deu_13:3; cf. Gen_22:1, Exo_15:25; Exo_20:20 : so the ‘temptations’ of Deu_4:34; Deu_7:19; Deu_29:3 are really trials, or provings, of Pharaoh’s disposition and purpose); and men test or ‘prove’ God when they act as if questioning, and so challenging Him to give proof of, His word, or promise, or ability to help; so here and v. 7 (cf. Deu_6:16, Psa_95:9), Num_14:22, Psa_78:18 (see v. 19 f.), Psa_78:41; Psa_78:56, Psa_106:14, cf. Isa_7:12 : in all these passages ‘tempt’ obscures the meaning.

If the analysis of the ch., adopted above, is correct, this clause will have stood originally after v. 3.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherefore the people did chide with Moses,.... Contended with him by words, expostulating with him in a very angry and indecent manner for bringing them thither; loading him with reproaches and calumnies, wrangling and quarrelling with him, and using him very ill, giving hard words and bad language:

and said, give us water, that we may drink; directing their speech both to Moses and Aaron, as the word "give" (g) being in the plural number shows; which was requiring that of them which only God could do and signifying as if they were under obligation to do it for them, since they had brought them out of Egypt, and had the care of them; and having seen so many miracles wrought by them, might conclude it was in their power to get them water when they pleased: had they desired them to pray to God for them, to give them water, and exercised faith on him, that he would provide for them, they had done well; which they might reasonably conclude he would, who had brought them out of Egypt, led them through the Red sea, had sweetened the waters at Marah for them, conducted them to fountains of water at Elim, and had rained flesh and bread about their tents in the wilderness of Sin, and still continued the manna with them:

and Moses said unto them, why chide ye with me? as if it was I that brought you hither, whereas it is the Lord that goes before you in the pillar of cloud and fire, and as if I kept water from you, or could give it you at pleasure; how unreasonable, as well as how ungenerous is it in you to chide with me on this account

wherefore do you tempt the Lord? the Lord Christ, as appears from Co1 10:9 who with the Father and Spirit is the one Jehovah; him they tempted or tried; they tried whether he was present with them or not, Exo 17:7, they tried his power, whether he could give them water in a dry and desert land; and they tried his patience by chiding with his servants, and showing so much distrust of his power and providence, of his goodness and faithfulness; and by their wretched ingratitude and rebellion they tempted him to work a miracle for them.

(g) "Date", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Tempt the Lord - It is a general characteristic of the Israelites that the miracles, which met each need as it arose, failed to produce a habit of faith: but the severity of the trial, the faintness and anguish of thirst in the burning desert, must not be overlooked in appreciating their conduct.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Chode, quarrelled and murmured. (Haydock) --- Tempt, requiring a miracle, ver. 7.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

By distrusting God’s power, and providence, and faithfulness, and goodness, upon such a small occasion, by refusing to submit to God’s will, and to wait upon him by humble and fervent prayers for relief, and instead thereof quarrelling with me, as if it were my fault, and murmuring against God under my name.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The people did chide. i.e. "quarrelled," made open murmurs and complaint as before frequently. (Exo_14:11, 12 15:24 16:2, 3) Give us water. As Moses had already given them flesh (the quails) and bread (the manna), so it perhaps seemed to the people easy that he should give them such a common thing as water. Stanley notices (p. 70) that the wadys suggest the idea of water, and make its absence the more intolerable they are "exactly like rivers," with "torrent bed, and banks, and clefts inthe rock for tributary streams, and at times even rushes and shrubs fringing their course signs of "water, water everywhere, yet not a drop to drink." Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord ? To "tempt the Lord" is to try his patience by want of faith, to arouse his anger, to provoke him to punish us. It was the special sin of the Israelites during the whole period of their sojourn in the wilderness. They "tempted and provoked the most high; (Psa_78:56) "provoked him to anger with their inventions", (Psa_106:29) "murmured in their tents" (ib, 25), "provoked him at the sea" (ib, 7), "tempted him in the desert" (ib, 14). God"s long-suffering, notwithstanding all, is simply amazing!

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

מה תנסון TO WHY DO YE TRY [THE LORD] by saying, “Will He be able to give us water in an arid land?”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.