This is the water of Meribah. — i.e., of strife. (See Exodus 17:7, and Note; also Numbers 27:14, where the words “in Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin,” are added to distinguish the latter from the earlier miracle.) In Deuteronomy 32:51 the waters are spoken of as those of “Meribah of Kadesh.”
And he was sanctified in them. — The reference in the words in them seems to be either to the word waters, which is plural in Hebrew, or, more probably, to the children of Israel, amongst whom Moses and Aaron were included. It has been supposed that the place derived its name of Kadesh (or, more fully, Kadesh-Barnea, Numbers 32:8) from the cognate verb, which is rendered sanctify in this and the preceding verse. It was in Kadesh that the sentence of exclusion had been pronounced upon the people generally (Numbers 14:22-23), and upon Moses and Aaron in particular, and it was thus that the Lord sanctified Himself in dealing with the transgressors. If the place derived its name, Kadesh, from these circumstances, it must have been called by that name proleptically in Genesis 14:7 — a supposition which is entirely consistent with the manner in which the place is mentioned in that verse (“Enmishpat, which is Kadesh.”)