Psalms 114:8 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

Which turned the rock into a standing water - That is, Before him who could do this, the earth should tremble; the inhabited world should stand in awe of such amazing power. The words rendered “a standing water,” mean properly a pool of water. They indicate nothing in regard to the permanency of that pool; they do not imply that it remained as a standing pool during the sojourn of the Israelites in the wilderness - whatever may have been the fact in regard to that. The simple idea is, that, at the time referred to, the rock was converted into a pool; that is, the waters flowed from the rock, constituting such a pool.

The flint - Another name for the rock - used here to describe the greatness of the miracle.

Into a fountain of waters - That is, The waters flowed from the rock as from a fountain. The Bible is a book of miracles, and there is nothing more improbable in this miracle than in any other.

In the Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac, the Arabic, and in many manuscripts, there is no division of the psalm here, but the following psalm is united with this, as if they were a single poem. Why, in those versions, the division of the Heb. was not followed, cannot now be ascertained. The division in the Hebrew is a natural division, and was evidently made in the original composition.

Psalms 114:8

8 Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.