Psalms 78:15

He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the seas.

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

ASV

He clave rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

YLT

He cleaveth rocks in a wilderness, And giveth drink--as the great deep.

DBT

He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as out of the depths, abundantly;

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Voices4

On this verse

"He split the rock in the desert." The rock has been split for us in the wilderness. The rock was struck, and the waters flowed: that rock which says, "Whoever thirsts, let him come and drink"; from whose belly rivers flowed. "And he gave them water to drink as if from a great abyss." In the desert, where there was no water, an abundance of waters was made for us. There are many things that might be said, and the psalm is boundless, and we are shut out by time.

Jerome· Homily 11, on Psalm 77, 420patristic

Related commentary

He clave the rocks in the wilderness,....

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

Ver. 15. He clave the rocks in the wilderness. Moses was the instrument, but the Lord did it all. Twice he made the flint a gushing rill. What can he not do? And gave them drink as out of the great depths, --as though it gushed from earth's innermost reservoirs. The streams were so fresh, so copious, so constant, that they seemed to well up from the earth's primeval fountains, and to leap at once from "the deep which coucheth beneath."

Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David (1869-1885)reformed

God gives abundantly, and is rich in mercy; he gives seasonably, and sometimes makes us to feel the want of mercies that we may the better know the worth of them. This water which God gave Israel out of the rock was the more valuable because it was spiritual drink. And that rock was Christ.

Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan

Voices on this verse

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Rabbinic commentary

How the Hebraic tradition has read this verse — and Marcus Brown’s own reading of it.

Cross-references

19 linked verses

The verses this one reaches12

Isaiah 44:3
For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.
Exodus 17:6
Behold, I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. And when you strike the rock, water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
1 Corinthians 10:4
and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Numbers 20:11
Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the congregation and their livestock were able to drink.
Psalms 105:41
He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert.
Psalms 114:8
who turned the rock into a pool, the flint into a fountain of water!
1 Kings 17:6
The ravens would bring him bread and meat in the morning and evening, and he would drink from the brook.
Habakkuk 3:9
You brandished Your bow; You called for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers.
Isaiah 43:20
The beasts of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I provide water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people.
Isaiah 41:18
I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water, and the dry land into flowing springs.
Isaiah 48:21
They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He made water flow for them from the rock; He split the rock, and water gushed out.
Revelation 22:17
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let the one who hears say, “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.

7 more linked verses are grouped by book below ↓

Cross-references

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The quotation web

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Around this verse

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

Featured studyThe Fulfillment Formula — Matthew's Ten QuotationsThis study walks through this verse.

Saul attempts to kill David (the harpist of Israel) — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Psalms — The canon's longest book — 150 Psalms edited into five doxology-bookended books, composed across a millennium, attributed to David, Asaph, Korah's sons, Moses, Solomon, Heman, Ethan, and anonymous voices. A ''Torah of David''; the Bible's longest continuous liturgical-devotional corpus.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: David principally (73 Psalms + 2 NT-cited); Asaph, Sons of Korah, Solomon, Moses, Heman, Ethan; ~50 anonymous.
Date: Composed c. 1400 BC (Mosaic Ps 90) through the post-exilic period (Ps 126 ''when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion''). Roughly a millennium of composition; editorial compilation likely into the Persian period.

More cross-references7 further linked verses, grouped by book▾ open

Every other verse the study tradition links to this one, in the Bible’s own order. The first links in each book carry a line of their text; every reference opens its full verse page.

Numbers1

Numbers 20:8“Take the staff and assemble the congregation. You and your brother Aaron are to…

Deuteronomy1

Deuteronomy 8:15He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and…

2 Kings1

2 Kings 3:20The next morning, at the time of the morning sacrifice, water suddenly flowed from…

Psalms1

Psalms 74:15You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.

Isaiah1

Isaiah 35:6Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout…

John1

John 7:37On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called…

Revelation1

Revelation 22:1Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear…

Cross-references are drawn from classic Bible study tools and open, shareable Bible data.

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
1 Corinthians 10:4
and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
leads to
- Exodus 17:6
  Behold, I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. And when you strike the rock, water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in…
  Reached by 4 independent paths from here.
- Isaiah 48:21
  They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He made water flow for them from the rock; He split the rock, and water gushed out.
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
- John 7:37
  On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
Through
Exodus 17:6
Behold, I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. And when you strike the rock, water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in…
leads to
- 1 Corinthians 10:4
  and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
  Reached by 3 independent paths from here.
- Psalms 105:41
  He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert.
  Reached by 3 independent paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 8:15
  He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.
  Reached by 3 independent paths from here.
- Nehemiah 9:15
  In their hunger You gave them bread from heaven; in their thirst You brought them water from the rock. You told them to go in and possess the land which You had sworn to…
Through
Psalms 114:8
who turned the rock into a pool, the flint into a fountain of water!
leads to
- Numbers 20:11
  Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the congregation and their livestock were able to drink.
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.

The whole web at once: see the Arc.

Where the connections lead

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