Image Details

Marc Chagall/ARS, NY

Shall we produce waters from this rock? Moses, recognizable at far left by the rays of light shooting from his forehead, points to the stream God miraculously provided for the Israelites when they were thirsty in the wilderness in this painting by Marc Chagall (1887–1985). In the Priestly account of this event (Numbers 20:10), set at Kadesh, Moses angers God when, incited by the peoples’ constant complaints of thirst, he strikes the rock that God had merely commanded him to speak to in order to produce water. In the Elohistic account (Exodus 17:6), however, this miracle takes place at Horeb, not Kadesh, and Moses strikes the rock in obedience to God’s command, rather than in violation of it.