The Nile and water from the rock
1 She caused their works to prosper by the hand of the holy prophet.
2
They wandered through a desert in which no one lived. They set up their tents in the midst of desolate surroundings.
3
They opposed those who fought against them and defended themselves from their enemies.
4
They thirsted and cried out to you. You gave them water from a sharp rock, and their thirst was quenched by liquid from that hard stone.
5
When your people were in need, they were blessed with the very things that you used to punish their enemies.
6
So instead of a source of fresh water, your enemies found their own flowing river to be polluted with blood and gore. It was a judgment on those who killed their own children.
7
But you gave your people water in greater abundance than they could possibly imagine.
8
You showed your people through their own experience of thirst how you punished their opponents.
9
When your people were put to the test, you disciplined them, but you also showed mercy. But they learned from this how harshly the ungodly were tormented when you judged them.
10
You disciplined your people in the same way that parents warn their children, but you examined and passed sentence on the ungodly like a strict ruler.
11
Whether they were distant or close by, you still afflicted them.
12
They groaned on account of their punishment and on account of the memory of the things that they had done.
13
When they heard that the Hebrews were benefiting from their punishment, they perceived that it was the Lord's doing.
14
They thirsted, but their thirst was so different from the thirst of those who do what is right! In the end, they stood in awe of the man they had mockingly rejected long ago because he had been set adrift and exposed.