Meribah
Encyclopedia
Meribah is one of the locations which the Torah
identifies as having been travelled through by the Israelites, during the Exodus
, although the continuous list of visited stations
in the Book of Numbers
doesn't mention it. In the Book of Exodus, Meribah is mentioned at the same time as Massah
, in a context which suggests that Massah is the same location as Meribah, but other biblical mentions of Massah and Meribah, such as that in the Blessing of Moses
, seem to imply that they are distinct.
about the lack of water, and Moses rebuking the Israelites for testing Yahweh
; the text states that it was on this account that the place gained the name Massah, meaning testing, and the name Meribah, meaning quarreling. The narrative in the Book of Exodus states that, on account of their thirst, the Israelites grumbled against Moses, so Moses, in fear for his life, appeals to Yahweh; the narrative continues with Yahweh telling Moses to walk ahead of the others, and strike the rock at Horeb with his rod, and when Moses does this, it causes the rock to expel water.
The episode recounted by the Book of Numbers features the Israelites quarreling with Moses and Aaron
about the lack of water and food crops; the text states that Moses and Aaron responded by consulting Yahweh at the Tabernacle
door, while prostrating
themselves, and that Yahweh told them to take the rod, and speak to a particular rock while the people are gathered together in view of it. The narrative continues with Moses following the instructions to take Aaron's staff and to gather the Israelites, but instead of speaking to the rock, which Yahweh had stated would result in water flowing from it, Moses speaks to the crowd and strikes the rock, doing so twice, resulting in a strong flow of water.
Some textual scholars
regard the two accounts as different versions of the same events at Meribah, with the version in the Book of Exodus being from the JE
source, and the version in the Book of Numbers being from the Priestly Source
; the latter account, like the Priestly Source in general, is considered to be an attempt to supplant the JE version of the narrative, which doesn't treat Aaron
as being as important as the Aaronid writer of the Priestly Source would have liked.
According to these textual scholars, the JE account in Exodus of the events at Massah and Meribah is spliced together from two earlier source texts, namely the Jahwist
and Elohist
texts. Textual scholars regard the Jahwist
text and Elohist
text as both having an account of the naming of Massah, and both having an account of provision of water, but with the accounts being spliced together in a non-straightforward manner; where the combined text reports events at Massah and Meribah, textual scholars believe that the mention of a quarrel, the testing of Yahweh, and the naming of Massah, are all part of the Jahwist
text, while the extraction of water from a stone, and the naming of Meribah, are part of the Elohist
text. The Elohist account of water being provided at Meribah (מריבה) is seen by Biblical scholars
as a parallel of the Jahwist's account of the provision of water at Marah
(מרה); in the Marah narrative is mention of Yahweh testing the Israelites, which textual scholars attribute to the Elohist account, and regard as the parallel of the Jahwist's account of the naming of Massah after the testing of Yahweh by the Israelites.
. It's unclear exactly what it was for which they were being punished, though the text does make it evident that it was just Moses who spoke to the people and who struck the rock; biblical scholars regard this as an example of the Priestly Source's usual subtle denigration of Moses, the hero of the Shiloh priesthood (which rivaled the Aaronids). One possible reason for the punishment is that Moses had struck the rock twice, rather than just speaking to it as he had been asked to do; another possibility is that he had rashly addressed the Israelites by the phrase you rebels. Yet another reason may be that Moses attributes the miracle to his own power and fails to mention the Lord. According to Deuteronomy
, which textual scholars attribute to a writer
who was pro-Moses and anti-Aaron, the punishment was due to the lack of trust
in Yahweh that had been exhibited by the Israelites, rather than by Moses.
see the narrative about Massah and Meribah as having originated as aetiological myths seeking to justify their names.
, while according to the Book of Numbers, Meribah was located at Kadesh-Barnea. Textual scholars attribute the difference to the different sources from which these passages derive, and regard both mentions of Meribah as referring to the same place. The Septuagint and Targum
s deal with the issue by regarding the Meribah in the Book of Numbers as simply being a common noun, rather than a place-name, rendering Me Meribath-Kadesh as the waters of strife in Kadesh rather than as the waters of Meribah in Kadesh.
The identification of Rephidim is heavily dependent on the identification of the Biblical Mount Sinai
, which the biblical narrative portrays the Israelites as having reached shortly after they had left Rephidim. Traditionally, Sinai was equated with one of the mountains at the south of the Sinai Peninsula
leading to the identification of Rephidim as the Wadi Refayid, a location roughly 8 miles south from Jebel Musa
; this would make it quite difficult to equate the Meribah in Rephidim with the Meribah near Kadesh-Barnea. However, the majority of both scholars and religious authorities believe that this traditional identification of Sinai is inaccurate, with the suggested alternatives being in the north and centre of the Sinai peninsula, in the Hejaz
, and in the north eastern Arabah
; these identifications would fit with the situation that both biblical narratives of Meribah referring to a place in the vicinity of Kedesh-Barnea.
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
identifies as having been travelled through by the Israelites, during the Exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
, although the continuous list of visited stations
Stations list
The Bible lists 42 locations or "stations" visited by the Israelites following their exodus from Egypt. They are definitively listed in , but also are given at length in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Biblical commentators like St Jerome in his Epistle to Fabiola, Bede and St Peter Damian discussed them...
in the Book of Numbers
Book of Numbers
The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....
doesn't mention it. In the Book of Exodus, Meribah is mentioned at the same time as Massah
Massah
Massah is one of the locations which the Torah identifies as having been travelled through by the Israelites, during the Exodus, although the list of visited stations in the Book of Numbers doesn't mention it...
, in a context which suggests that Massah is the same location as Meribah, but other biblical mentions of Massah and Meribah, such as that in the Blessing of Moses
Blessing of Moses
The Blessing of Moses is the name sometimes given to a poem that appears in Deuteronomy . The poem presents an opinion of the merits and attributes of each of the Tribes of Israel, and so can be compared with the Blessing of Jacob, which has the same theme...
, seem to imply that they are distinct.
Events
The Biblical text mentions two very similar episodes that both occur at a place named Meribah. The episode recounted by the Book of Exodus features the Israelites quarreling with MosesMoses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
about the lack of water, and Moses rebuking the Israelites for testing Yahweh
Yahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
; the text states that it was on this account that the place gained the name Massah, meaning testing, and the name Meribah, meaning quarreling. The narrative in the Book of Exodus states that, on account of their thirst, the Israelites grumbled against Moses, so Moses, in fear for his life, appeals to Yahweh; the narrative continues with Yahweh telling Moses to walk ahead of the others, and strike the rock at Horeb with his rod, and when Moses does this, it causes the rock to expel water.
The episode recounted by the Book of Numbers features the Israelites quarreling with Moses and Aaron
Aaron
In the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, Aaron : Ααρών ), who is often called "'Aaron the Priest"' and once Aaron the Levite , was the older brother of Moses, and a prophet of God. He represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites...
about the lack of water and food crops; the text states that Moses and Aaron responded by consulting Yahweh at the Tabernacle
Tabernacle
The Tabernacle , according to the Hebrew Torah/Old Testament, was the portable dwelling place for the divine presence from the time of the Exodus from Egypt through the conquering of the land of Canaan. Built to specifications revealed by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, it accompanied the Israelites...
door, while prostrating
Prostration
Prostration is the placement of the body in a reverentially or submissively prone position. Major world religions employ prostration either as a means of embodying reverence for a noble person, persons or doctrine, or as an act of submissiveness to a supreme being or beings...
themselves, and that Yahweh told them to take the rod, and speak to a particular rock while the people are gathered together in view of it. The narrative continues with Moses following the instructions to take Aaron's staff and to gather the Israelites, but instead of speaking to the rock, which Yahweh had stated would result in water flowing from it, Moses speaks to the crowd and strikes the rock, doing so twice, resulting in a strong flow of water.
Some textual scholars
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
regard the two accounts as different versions of the same events at Meribah, with the version in the Book of Exodus being from the JE
JE
JE is a hypothetical intermediate source text of the Torah postulated by the DH. It is a combination and redaction of the Jahwist and Elohist source texts. According to this hypothesis, J was composed c. 950 BC, E was composed c. 850 BC, and the two were combined into JE c. 750 BC. JE was...
source, and the version in the Book of Numbers being from the Priestly Source
Priestly source
The Priestly Source is one of the sources of the Torah/Pentateuch in the bible. Primarily a product of the post-Exilic period when Judah was a province of the Persian empire , P was written to show that even when all seemed lost, God remained present with Israel...
; the latter account, like the Priestly Source in general, is considered to be an attempt to supplant the JE version of the narrative, which doesn't treat Aaron
Aaron
In the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, Aaron : Ααρών ), who is often called "'Aaron the Priest"' and once Aaron the Levite , was the older brother of Moses, and a prophet of God. He represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites...
as being as important as the Aaronid writer of the Priestly Source would have liked.
According to these textual scholars, the JE account in Exodus of the events at Massah and Meribah is spliced together from two earlier source texts, namely the Jahwist
Jahwist
The Jahwist, also referred to as the Jehovist, Yahwist, or simply as J, is one of the sources of the Torah. It gets its name from the fact that it characteristically uses the term Yahweh for God in the book of Genesis...
and Elohist
Elohist
The Elohist is one of four sources of the Torah described by the Documentary Hypothesis. Its name comes from the term it uses for God: Elohim; it is characterised by, among other things, an abstract view of God, using "Horeb" instead of "Sinai" for the mountain where Moses received the laws of...
texts. Textual scholars regard the Jahwist
Jahwist
The Jahwist, also referred to as the Jehovist, Yahwist, or simply as J, is one of the sources of the Torah. It gets its name from the fact that it characteristically uses the term Yahweh for God in the book of Genesis...
text and Elohist
Elohist
The Elohist is one of four sources of the Torah described by the Documentary Hypothesis. Its name comes from the term it uses for God: Elohim; it is characterised by, among other things, an abstract view of God, using "Horeb" instead of "Sinai" for the mountain where Moses received the laws of...
text as both having an account of the naming of Massah, and both having an account of provision of water, but with the accounts being spliced together in a non-straightforward manner; where the combined text reports events at Massah and Meribah, textual scholars believe that the mention of a quarrel, the testing of Yahweh, and the naming of Massah, are all part of the Jahwist
Jahwist
The Jahwist, also referred to as the Jehovist, Yahwist, or simply as J, is one of the sources of the Torah. It gets its name from the fact that it characteristically uses the term Yahweh for God in the book of Genesis...
text, while the extraction of water from a stone, and the naming of Meribah, are part of the Elohist
Elohist
The Elohist is one of four sources of the Torah described by the Documentary Hypothesis. Its name comes from the term it uses for God: Elohim; it is characterised by, among other things, an abstract view of God, using "Horeb" instead of "Sinai" for the mountain where Moses received the laws of...
text. The Elohist account of water being provided at Meribah (מריבה) is seen by Biblical scholars
Biblical criticism
Biblical criticism is the scholarly "study and investigation of Biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work...
as a parallel of the Jahwist's account of the provision of water at Marah
Marah (Bible)
Marah is one of the locations which the Torah identifies as having been travelled through by the Israelites, during the Exodus.The liberated Israelites set out on their journey in the desert, somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula...
(מרה); in the Marah narrative is mention of Yahweh testing the Israelites, which textual scholars attribute to the Elohist account, and regard as the parallel of the Jahwist's account of the naming of Massah after the testing of Yahweh by the Israelites.
The Death of Moses and Aaron
In the account in the Book of Numbers, but not the account in the Book of Exodus, after the water is produced, Yahweh tells Moses and Aaron that they did not trust him sufficiently to honour him, and as a consequence both Moses and Aaron would die before entering CanaanCanaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
. It's unclear exactly what it was for which they were being punished, though the text does make it evident that it was just Moses who spoke to the people and who struck the rock; biblical scholars regard this as an example of the Priestly Source's usual subtle denigration of Moses, the hero of the Shiloh priesthood (which rivaled the Aaronids). One possible reason for the punishment is that Moses had struck the rock twice, rather than just speaking to it as he had been asked to do; another possibility is that he had rashly addressed the Israelites by the phrase you rebels. Yet another reason may be that Moses attributes the miracle to his own power and fails to mention the Lord. According to Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy
The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
, which textual scholars attribute to a writer
Deuteronomist
The Deuteronomist, or simply D, is one of the sources underlying the Hebrew bible . It is found in the book of Deuteronomy, in the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings and also in the book of Jeremiah...
who was pro-Moses and anti-Aaron, the punishment was due to the lack of trust
Trust (sociology)
In a social context, trust has several connotations. Definitions of trust typically refer to a situation characterised by the following aspects: One party is willing to rely on the actions of another party ; the situation is directed to the future. In addition, the trustor abandons control over...
in Yahweh that had been exhibited by the Israelites, rather than by Moses.
Historicity
Some Biblical scholarsBiblical criticism
Biblical criticism is the scholarly "study and investigation of Biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work...
see the narrative about Massah and Meribah as having originated as aetiological myths seeking to justify their names.
Location
According to the Book of Exodus, Meribah was a location in RephidimRephidim
Rephidim was one of the places visited by the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt.The Israelites had come from the wilderness of Sin. At Rephidim, the Israelites found no water to drink, and in their distress they blamed Moses for their troubles, to the point where Moses feared that they...
, while according to the Book of Numbers, Meribah was located at Kadesh-Barnea. Textual scholars attribute the difference to the different sources from which these passages derive, and regard both mentions of Meribah as referring to the same place. The Septuagint and Targum
Targum
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...
s deal with the issue by regarding the Meribah in the Book of Numbers as simply being a common noun, rather than a place-name, rendering Me Meribath-Kadesh as the waters of strife in Kadesh rather than as the waters of Meribah in Kadesh.
The identification of Rephidim is heavily dependent on the identification of the Biblical Mount Sinai
Biblical Mount Sinai
The Biblical Mount Sinai is the mountain at which the Book of Exodus states that the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God...
, which the biblical narrative portrays the Israelites as having reached shortly after they had left Rephidim. Traditionally, Sinai was equated with one of the mountains at the south of the Sinai Peninsula
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...
leading to the identification of Rephidim as the Wadi Refayid, a location roughly 8 miles south from Jebel Musa
Jebel Musa
Jebel Musa, also spelled Jabal Musa or Gebel Musa, means "Mountain of Moses". It may refer to:* Mount Sinai, also known as Jebel Musa, a mountain in the Sinai Desert which may be the Biblical Mount Sinai...
; this would make it quite difficult to equate the Meribah in Rephidim with the Meribah near Kadesh-Barnea. However, the majority of both scholars and religious authorities believe that this traditional identification of Sinai is inaccurate, with the suggested alternatives being in the north and centre of the Sinai peninsula, in the Hejaz
Hejaz
al-Hejaz, also Hijaz is a region in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia. Defined primarily by its western border on the Red Sea, it extends from Haql on the Gulf of Aqaba to Jizan. Its main city is Jeddah, but it is probably better known for the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina...
, and in the north eastern Arabah
Arabah
The Arabah , also known as Aravah, is a section of the Great Rift Valley running in a north-south orientation between the southern end of the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea and continuing further south where it ends at the Gulf of Aqaba. It includes most of the border between Israel to the...
; these identifications would fit with the situation that both biblical narratives of Meribah referring to a place in the vicinity of Kedesh-Barnea.