Endnote 9 – Why Moses Could Not Enter The Promised Land

The spring is located at Mount Horeb—a point missed by almost all interpreters (but see the 13th-century commentary of Nachmanides). Horeb thus exemplifies the holy mountain running with life-giving water, a theme more often associated with Zion (Ezekiel 47:1–12; Joel 3:18; Zechariah 13:1, 14:8; Psalms 36:7–10, 46:4, 65:10, 84:6; Revelation 22:1–2; also compare Isaiah 2:2–3 [= Micah 4:1–2] and Jeremiah 31:12). Horeb’s waters reappear in Exodus 32:20 to absorb the ashes of the golden calf. Levi’s blessing in Deuteronomy 33:8–11 also seems to associate Massah-and-Meribah with the golden calf; compare Exodus 32:26–29. See Propp, Water in the Wilderness, Harvard Semitic Monographs 40 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987), pp. 51–93.