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עבר לפני העם PASS BEFORE THE PEOPLE and see whether they will stone you! (Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 23) Why have you uttered a slander against My children?

AND THE ETERNAL SAID UNTO MOSES: PASS ON BEFORE THE PEOPLE. This is similar in usage to the following expressions: he [Joseph] caused them to pass into cities;⁴¹⁸Genesis 47:21. and I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not.⁴¹⁹Jeremiah 15:14. Thus the meaning thereof here is: “go away from them to another place,” [as will be explained further]. Perhaps this is similar to the expressions: and he [Ahimaaz] overran the Cushite;⁴²⁰II Samuel 18:23. and he [Jacob] himself passed over before them,⁴²¹Genesis 33:3. meaning that he [Jacob] went in the forefront of them.
The purport of this verse is that the people were in Rephidim, and the rock from which the waters were to come was in Horeb,⁴²²Verse 6: Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb. this being Mount Sinai, according to the opinion of the former ones,⁴²³I.e., the Rabbis of the Talmud. See Shabbath 89 a: “Mount Sinai bears five names: the wilderness of Zin, Horeb, etc.” or in my opinion, some city near the mountain, as I will yet explain.⁴²⁴At the beginning of Seder Yithro (18:1). Moses therefore had to go first before the people, to pass on from Rephidim to Horeb — a distance of one more parsah [a Persian mile] or more — from the camp before them. It was for this reason that G-d said to him, Pass on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel… and go. That is to say, “Go until you will see Me stand before you upon the rock in Horeb.” Now Moses hit the rock, and water came out of it. Scripture however does not relate that the congregation and their cattle drank, as it does in the second incident [at the waters of Meribah],⁴²⁵Numbers 20:11. This took place in Kadesh. See also above, Note 414. for it is self-understood that they did so. It is clear that the people did not go to Horeb to drink, since they did not arrive in front of Mount Sinai until afterwards in the third month.⁴²⁶Further, 19:1. Instead, they sent their young men and their cattle there to draw water and bring it to them, as is customary in camps.
It appears likely to me that the waters — cold flowing waters⁴²⁷Jeremiah 18:14. — came out from the rock in Horeb and flowed to Rephidim, and there the people drank them. This is Scripture’s intent in saying, He brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers,⁴²⁸Psalms 78:16. and it is further written, He opened the rock, and waters gushed out; they ran, a river in the dry places.⁴²⁹Ibid., 105:41. The verse stating, Behold, He smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed,⁴³⁰Ibid., 78:20. also applies to the rock in Horeb, in line with the plain meaning of Scripture.⁴³¹According to the Midrash, however, this verse (Psalms 78:20) was said with reference to Moses’ smiting the rock in Kadesh, or, as they are called, the waters of Meribah (Bamidbar Rabbah 19:8). The second rock in Kadesh,⁴³²Numbers 20:1. [instead of gushing forth water], became cleft with a sort of spring welling forth waters, and therefore Scripture states, That is ‘the well’ whereof the Eternal said unto Moses, etc.,⁴³³Ibid., 21:16. and Israel said in the Song, ‘The well,’ which the princes digged,⁴³⁴Ibid., Verse 18. for it was like a well that was dug. It is for this reason that Scripture says there, and the congregation drank, and their cattle,⁴³⁵Ibid., 20:11. which means that there they drank from it at that place immediately, but here [in Horeb], overflowing rivers came from it and they drank of it in their homes at their will. Now although according to the tradition of our Rabbis, it was all Miriam’s Well,⁴³⁶“That is to say, the rock which was in Rephidim (Horeb) is the same as the one in Kadesh, this being ‘Miriam’s Well,’ which accompanied the Israelites on all their marches during the forty years’ wandering” (Rabbeinu Bachya, Vol. II, p. 153 in my edition). The tradition is mentioned in Bamidbar Rabbah 20:2. This miracle was wrought for the merits of the prophetess Miriam. Ramban’s intent is thus clear: If it was all Miriam’s Well, how can you explain its different forms of activity, for in Horeb it was like a gushing stream, and in Kadesh it was like a well? it is possible that on the first occasion [in Horeb] and during all their forty years’ wandering, the waters came gushing out from the rock like overflowing rivers. The second time, [in Kadesh], as a punishment for that which took place there, it became [only] like a dug well that was full of fresh water [not a gushing spring].

עבור לפני העם, and their complaints will cease when they see that you are making an effort to provide their needs.

עבור לפני העם, "pass before the people, etc." Perhaps G'd was aware that the thirst amongst the people was very great and that they would be in danger of their lives very shortly. This is why He told Moses to pass in front of them on a path which suggested to them that he went to find water in order to quench the fire of their thirst. He was not to take a route unknown to the people and not visible to them. He was also to take along the elders to confirm the people's impression that Moses was going in search of water and not to isolate himself in prayer.

עבור לפני העם, “pass before the people, etc.” Nachmanides understands the word עבור here as an instruction to walk ahead of the people, as in Samuel II 18,23 ויעבור את הכושי, “he overtook the Kushi.” We have to remember that the people were encamped at Refidim, whereas the rock from which the water would gush forth was located at Mount Chorev, also known as Mount Sinai, or that Refidim was a small town near the bottom of that mountain. I will still have occasion to describe the topography in detail. At any rate, it was a distance of approx. 4 kilometers from the camp to where that rock was located, and Moses at the head of the elders would walk there in full view of the people. Moses would have the vision of an angel on top of that rock, indicating that he had arrived at the correct spot. In our verse here, as opposed to a similar phenomenon almost 40 years later, the Torah, though reporting that the rock produced water, did not mention that this water was adequate for the people’s herds. (verse 6) Nonetheless, it is quite clear that there must have been enough water, not only this, but the people did not have to trouble themselves to march to Mount Chorev in order to be able to drink that water. Otherwise, why would the Torah have to tell us in chapter 19 that the people reached the edge of that desert on the first day of the third month and apparently encamped near the foot of Mount Chorev on the third day of that month. It seems pretty clear that the waters from Mount Chorev flowed to Refidim and arrived there in pristine condition for the people and their herds to be able to drink from. The other rock, at Kadesh (Numbers 27,14) apparently produced a cleft in the rock, which resulted in the rock being like a natural spring, people streaming to it to drink from it directly, as from a fountain. It was this well which the people immortalized in their song in Numbers Here the waters flowed directly past the people’s huts or tents so as to make it most convenient for them. Even though both sources of water are part of the concept of בארה של מרים, “the well granted the people through the merit of Miriam,” it is likely that right up until the fortieth year they benefited from the water which originated at Mount Chorev, whereas in Numbers, the people’s conducted merited a certain measure of punitive action, so that the continued accessibility of their water was less convenient than previously. The expression באר חפרוה שרים, “a well which had been excavated by nobles,” may reflect that subtle distinction.

V. 5. u. 6. Von Refidim zum Choreb ist nur eine Station und scheint überhaupt nach diesen Versen wohl kaum eine Tagereise gewesen zu sein. Es scheint, ohne ihr vorzeitiges Murren, habe Gott sie erst den Mangel recht fühlen lassen und sie dann nach Choreb, dem eigentlichen Ziel ihrer Wanderung in die Wüste ziehen lassen, und habe ihnen dann dort aus dem Felsen Wasser strömen lassen wollen. Sollten sie ja dort das Gesetz erhalten und lange Zeit weilen. Sie waren ja schon einmal drei Tage ohne Wasser zu finden gewandert, ohne umzukommen. Sie hatten also gewiss einigen Wasservorrat mit auf der Wanderung. Es gewinnt dieses umsomehr Wahrscheinlichkeit, wenn wir bedenken, dass, nach den Überlieferungen, das Wasser von da an, als der sogenannte Mirjamsbrunnen, mit ihnen gewandert, sie daher fortan jeden letzenden Trunk in der Wüste dem Felsen am Gottesberge der Gesetzempfängnis zu verdanken hatten und haben sollten. Es erklärte sich dann auch der Bamidbar 21, 18 in dem Brunnengesange vorkommende Ausdruck umsomehr und eigentlicher: במחקק במשענתם, derselbe Griffel, der ihnen die Gesetze schrieb, grub ihnen den Brunnen, der sie in der Wüste am Leben erhielt. In der Tat finden wir auch von dieser Wasserversorgung am Horeb im ersten Jahre bis nach Mirjams Tode im vierzigsten nicht wieder, dass ihnen Wasser gefehlt. Ihr vorzeitiges Murren veranlasste es nur, dass sie Gott schon jetzt vom Horeb her in Refidim mit Wasser versorgte. Die Worte ויצאו ממנו מים ושתה העם scheinen nämlich zu bezeichnen, dass das Wasser vom Horeb nach Refidim zum Lager des Volkes geflossen. So wird auch dieser Vorgang Ps. 105, 41 besungen: "Es forderte und Er ließ den Selaw kommen und sättigte sie mit Himmelsbrot, öffnete einen Fels, und Wasser floss und ging durch Wüsten als ein Strom!" Demgemäß heißt das עבור לפני העם, gehe dem Volke voraus; gehe du dorthin, wohin das ganze Volk später hinkommen soll. ומטך, der Stab, mit dem du den Ägyptern das Wasser zum Trinken genommen, soll jetzt Israel Wasser zum Trinken schaffen.

וקח אתך מזקני ישראל, “and take with you some of the elders of Israel.” They were to be witnesses to the miracle that was to occur when, in response to Moses hitting the rock, a supply of water would materialise. The presence of these elders would prevent the people from claiming that the location (near Sinai) from which this water originated was one where fountains of water were located.

וקח אתך מזקני ישראל AND TAKE WITH THEE OF THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL as witnesses — that they may see that it is by your agency that the water will come forth from the rock and that people may not say that there had been springs there from time immemorial (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 17:5:2).

AND THY ROD, WHEREWITH THOU SMOTEST THE RIVER, TAKE IN THY HAND. This means “[the staff wherewith] you commanded Aaron [to strike the river].”⁴³⁷Above, 7:19. He mentioned the striking of the river, but He did not say, “and the rod which was turned to a serpent”⁴³⁸Ibid., Verse 15. or “the rod wherewith you did the signs.”⁴³⁹See above, 4:17. This was in order to call attention to the wonder in it, for at that time, the rod turned the waters into blood, thus removing from them their particular nature, and now the rod brought water into a flinty rock,⁴⁴⁰See Psalms 114:8. thus doing things of contrary effect.

ומטך אשר הכית בו את היאור, your staff with which you had smitten the river so that the Egyptians had given up looking for water to drink, will now perform the opposite function and provide you with drinking water.

ומטך אשר הכית בו את היאור, “and your staff, the one with which you smote the river Nile, etc.” Even though it had not been Moses personally who had smitten the river with his staff, but Aaron, (Exodus 7,19) seeing that Moses had instructed Aaron to do this, he is the one considered as having initiated it. The reason the staff is described in its relation to having converted water to blood, and nothing is said about any of the other miracles in which Moses’ staff had been featured, is that G’d wanted to show that this very staff which had been the source of harm, would now be playing the role of being an instrument that orchestrated something beneficial.

אשר הכית בו את היאור, "with which you have struck the river Nile." This in itself would be a remarkable miracle seeing that the very staff which had made the water of the Nile fetid, undrinkable, and turned it into blood, would now produce water for the Israelites to drink. This would also deflate the irreligious heretics who denied the fact that Moses' staff possessed miraculous powers.

אשר הכית בו את היאור, “with which you had struck the river Nile;” [and turned its water into blood. Ed.] Moses was to demonstrate that his staff was not only an instrument with which to produce harmful effects. Actually, it had not been Moses who had struck the Nile but Aaron. (Exodus 7,19) The fact is that whatever Aaron did in Egypt, he did as the disciple of his master, Moses. This time, instead of denying water through his staff, he produced water by means of it.

ומטך אשר הכית בו את היאר AND THY STAFF, WHEREWITH THOU SMOTEST THE RIVER — What is the force of the words “wherewith thou smotest the river” — they are apparently superfluous? But these are added because the Israelites had said of the staff that it was intended only for punishment: by it Pharaoh and the Egyptians had been stricken with many plagues in Egypt and at the Red Sea. On this account it is stated here: take the staff wherewith thou smotest the river — they shall see now that it is also intended for good (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 17:5:3).

והלכת. from the camp to the rock.