Exodus 17:4

4 And Moses cried to the Lord, saying, What shall I do to this people? yet a little while and they will stone me.

Exodus 17:4 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 17:4

And Moses cried unto the Lord.
&c.] Or prayed unto him, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; which shows the distress he was thrown into, the vehemence of his prayer, and perhaps the loud and lamentable tone in which he expressed it: this was the method he always took, and the refuge he fled unto in all his times of trouble; in which he did well, and set a good example of piety and devotion to God, of faith and trust in him: saying,

what shall I do unto this people?
or, "for this people" ^F8; to relieve them in their present exigency; suggesting his own inability to do any thing for them: yet not despairing of relief, but rather expressing faith in the power and goodness of God to keep them, by his application to him; desiring that he would open a way for their help, and direct him what he must do in this case for them: something, he intimates, must be done speedily for the glory of God, for his own safety, and to prevent the people sinning yet more and more, and so bring destruction upon them; for, adds he,

they be almost ready to stone me
or, "yet a little, and they will stone me" ^F9; if the time of help is protracted, if relief is not in a short time given, he had reason to believe from the menaces they had given out, the impatience they had showed, the rage they were in, they would certainly take up stones and stone him, being in a stony and rocky place; and this they would do, not as a formal punishment of him as a false prophet, telling them they should be brought to Canaan, when they were brought into the wilderness and perishing there; which law respecting such an one was not yet in being; but this he supposed as what an enraged multitude was wont to do, and which was more ready at hand for them to do than anything else, see ( Exodus 8:26 ) .

---

FOOTNOTES:

F8 (hzh Mel) "populo haic", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus
F9 (jem dwe) "adhuc paululum et lapidabit me." V. L. "parum abest", Tigurine version; "adhuc modicum", Pagninus, Montanus; "adhuc paulisper", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ainsworth.

Exodus 17:4 In-Context

2 And the people reviled Moses, saying, Give us water, that we may drink; and Moses said to them, Why do ye revile me, and why tempt ye the Lord?

3 And the people thirsted there for water, and there the people murmured against Moses, saying, Why is this? hast thou brought us up out of Egypt to slay us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

4 And Moses cried to the Lord, saying, What shall I do to this people? yet a little while and they will stone me.

5 And the Lord said to Moses, Go before this people, and take to thyself of the elders of the people; and the rod with which thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and thou shalt go.

6 Behold, I stand there before thou , on the rock in Choreb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and water shall come out from it, and the people shall drink. And Moses did so before the sons of Israel.