Bible Strands
Psalms 78:20
When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can He also give bread or supply His people with meat?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Israelites speak against God in the wilderness after witnessing water flow from a struck rock, questioning whether He can also provide bread and meat.
The words — הֲ/גַם (ha./gam) = also/even introduces the rhetorical challenge, while יִ֫שְׁטֹ֥פוּ (yish.To.fu) = they overflowed describes the violent surge of water from the struck rock.
The thread — The text echoes the wilderness water miracle in Numbers 20:11, where Moses strikes the rock and water gushes out, and mirrors the meat provision challenge in Numbers 11:21, where Moses questions how God will feed 600,000 people.
Why it lands — The verse demands a reader confront the pattern of doubting divine provision after receiving a sign, leaving the question of whether God can meet every need unanswered in the text itself.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
Cross-references
- Numbers 20:11 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.
- Numbers 11:21 But Moses replied, “Here I am among 600,000 men on foot, yet You say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’
- Genesis 18:12 So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
- Numbers 11:18 And say to the people: Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you will eat meat, because you have cried out in the hearing of the LORD, saying: ‘Who will feed us meat? For we were better off in Egypt!’ Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat.
- Psalms 78:41 Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
- Exodus 17:6 Behold, I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. And when you strike the rock, water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.