- This is the reason that God didn't allow Moses to enter the Promised Land:
Num. 20:7 - And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
Num. 20:8 - Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy
brother, and speak ye unto the rock before
their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and
thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the
rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their
Num. 20:9 - And Moses took the rod from before, the LORD, as he commanded him.
Num. 20:10 - And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together, before the
rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye
rebels; must we fetch you water out of
Num. 20:11 - And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the
rock twice: and the water came out
abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their
Num. 20:12 - And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
Num. 20:13 - This the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them. [See #5 below.]
- Perhaps Moses recalled the earlier 'fetching of water' and didn't think just speaking to the rock would do the trick - lacked trust based on the previous procedure:
Exo. 17:5 - And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with
thee of the elders, of Israel; and thy rod,
wherewith thou smotest the river, take in
thine hand, and go.
Exo. 17:6 - Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb;and thou shalt
smite the rock, and there shall come water out
of it, that the people may drink. And Moses
did so in the sight of the elders of
Exo. 17:7 - And he called the name of the
place Massah, and Meribah, because of the
chiding of the children of Israel, and because
they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the
LORD among us, or not?
- Still, tho, I find it hard to believe that God didn't take offense at the arrogance of, "Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?."
- As to your original reference of the NT and OT on divorce, there is a an article on this website that addresses the points:
While I don't agree that the Malachi reference belongs to this topic, perhaps other connections may be useful.
- Better translation? [Num. 20:13 - Growl (hamah - H1993) mi (from all) Meribah which they-contended sons-of Israel ath-with Yahweh and he [Aaron]-is-defiling-(himself) with them.]
Side Note: I never understood why Aaron was also denied the Promised Land. (Saying that it was because he was with Moses when he whacked the second rock...just didn't satisfy. Ex. 17:7 (above) says that his fatal flaw occurred at Meribah (first water-fetching in Exodus). Reading the English made no sense. Even the Hebrew inerlinear made no sense.
Tonight, I dug a little harder. Turns out that Strong's for 'qadash' has not only the meaning of 'holy' but also 'defiled' (H-6942). And on the internet, "mi" could mean "from all":
Biblical Hebrew Linguistics
מִכָּל (mi-kol). This base word is כל (kol) meaning "all." The prefix מ (mi) means "from." Combined, this word means "from all." מְלַאכְתֹּו (me-lakh-to). The base word is מלאכה (melakhah) meaning "business. The suffix ו (v) is the third person, masculine, singular, possessive pronoun – "of him." This word means "business of ...
It's a work in progress, but at least a new thread has been found that makes more sense - at least to me. Perhaps Aaron (as well as Miriam) complained about Moses/God.