After thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness, the children of Is'ra-el came once more to Ka'desh-Bar'ne-a, and once again sorrow befell them. In the first month of the fortieth year after the departure from E'gypt, death came to Mir'i-am, the sister of Mo'ses and Aa'ron. She was then about one hundred and thirty years old; her life had been long and full of interesting events. In her early years she had carefully watched over the life of her infant brother. During the years which followed, while Mo'ses was growing up in the palace of the E'gyp-tian king, she cherished in her heart the hope that some day her people would be delivered from bondage in E'gypt. When Mo'ses fled into Mid'i-an, and while he was lost to his people for forty years, she reflected upon the strange providences of God.
When Mo'ses and her older brother Aa'ron were chosen to lead in the deliverance of her oppressed people, Mir'i-am aided them in every possible way. She was honored as a prophetess, and known as a sweet singer in Is'ra-el.
At one time she became jealous of Mo'ses, envying him for all the honors conferred upon him by the LORD. She persuaded Aa'ron to join her in making false charges against Mo'ses, but was punished for this evil deed by a stroke of leprosy. Mo'ses quickly forgave her, and his prayers caused the leprosy to be removed, but her name does not appear again in the history of Is'ra-el until the account of her death.
Even in obscurity, however, Mir'i-am continued to serve God and her people, and when she died the whole congregation of Is'ra-el assembled in her honor. For thirty days there was a great mourning among the Is'ra-el-ites, then Mir'i-am was buried just outside the Promised Land for which she had longed all the days of her life.
When the season of mourning was over, the Is'ra-el-ites began to complain of their unhappy lot, for there was not enough water to meet their needs. It was under these trying circumstances that Mo'ses and Aa'ron committed the sin for which they were not permitted to live to lead Is'ra-el into the Promised Land.
The LORD directed Mo'ses to take Aa'ron, and to call the Is'ra-el-ites together by a great cliff in that vicinity. He told him to speak to the rock, promising that in answer to his voice sufficient water would burst forth to meet all the needs of the Is'ra-el-ites and their herds and flocks.
Once before, during the early days of Is'ra-el's sojourn in the wilderness, he had smitten a rock in the vicinity of Si'nai; a stream of water burst forth, and continued to flow as long as the Is'ra-el-ites were encamped at Si'nai. Now, after forty years in the wilderness, he was told again to speak to a rock for a similar blessing.
When all the people of Is'ra-el had gathered before him, Mo'ses reproached them bitterly, showing a spirit of impatience and anger. His patience had been worn out by the constant murmuring of the people.
Instead of speaking quietly to the rock, as the LORD had commanded, Mo'ses walked up to it and struck two violent blows with a rod. At once a great stream of water began to flow from the rock.
