Deuteronomy 8:15
A plain-spoken deep dive on this verse. Read the chapter →
He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Moses had charged parents in teaching their children to whet the word of God upon them (Deu 6:7) by frequent repetition of the same things over and over again; and here he himself takes the same method of instructing the Israelites as his children, frequently inculcating the same precepts and cautions, with the same motives or arguments to enforce them, that what they heard so often might abide with them. In this chapter Moses gives them, I. General exhortations to obedience (Deu 8:1, Deu 8:6). II. A review of the great things God had done for them in the wilderness, as a good argument for obedience (Deu 8:2-5, Deu 8:15, Deu 8:16). III. A prospect of the good land into which God would now bring them (Deu 8:7-9). IV. A necessary caution against the temptations of a prosperous condition (Deu 8:10-14, and Deu 8:17, Deu 8:18). V. A fair warning of the fatal consequences of apostasy from God (Deu 8:19, Deu 8:20).
Open source ↗8:15 water from the rock! See Exod 17:6; Num 20:2-13; see also Deut 1:37.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the congregation and their livestock were able to drink.
So the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.
And just as the LORD our God had commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites, through all the vast and terrifying wilderness you have seen. When we reached Kadesh-barnea,
They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
who turned the rock into a pool, the flint into a fountain of water!
and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought.
He led His people through the wilderness. His loving devotion endures forever.
The parched ground will become a pool, the thirsty land springs of water. In the haunt where jackals once lay, there will be grass and reeds and papyrus.
He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert.