Research source

Then God bade him go with some elders to the rock on Horeb, and fetch water out of it

Date of account: Modern scholarly compilation of much earlier traditions, published 1911
Source: The Legends of the Jews — Volume 3
Reference: The Legends of the Jews — Volume 3 · selected passage 17
Rights: public_domain
Language: English translation and synthesis from rabbinic sources
Translation: Henrietta Szold; compiled by Louis Ginzberg
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

Then God bade him go with some elders to the rock on Horeb, and fetch water out of it. The elders were to accompany him there, that they might be convinced that he was not bringing water from a well, but smiting it from a rock. To accomplish this miracle, God bade him smite the rock with his rod, as the people labored under the impression that this rod could only bring destruction, for through its agency Moses had brought the ten plagues upon the Egyptians in Egypt, and at the Red Sea; now they were to see that it could work good also. [122] Upon God's bidding, Moses told the people to choose from which rock they wished water to flow, [123] and hardly had Moses touched with his sapphire rod the rock which they had chosen, when plenteous water flowed from it.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a passage from a historical religious or interpretive text. Its genre, manuscript history, translation and place within its own tradition are part of the evidence and must remain visible.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice can compare the passage's descriptive features with later reports, but resemblance does not turn a vision, angel, mythic creature or sacred narrative into a modern incident report.

Investigate related details with Anomaly Graph’s account-based search, or read how matching and provenance work.