Numbers 20:8 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

Take the rod. — It has been supposed by some, from the fact that the rod is represented as being taken “from before the Lord” (Numbers 20:9), that the reference is to the rod of Aaron which was kept “before the testimony” (Numbers 17:10). On the other hand, the natural presumption that the rod was the same as that with which some of the previous miracles in Egypt and those at the Red Sea and at Rephidim had been wrought is confirmed by the facts that the name of Aaron is not mentioned in this verse until after the mention of the rod, and that Moses is said, in Numbers 20:11, to have smitten the rock “with his rod.”

Numbers 20:8

8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.