Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.
Ver. 33. Because they provoked his spirit] So that he was in a pelt to the grieving of God's good Spirit within him, Ephesians 4:30,31. O tantaene animis coelestibus irae?
So that he spake unadvisedly] Some render it only, he spake, or he pronounced; he should not have spoken at all to the people, as having no order from God so to do in that transaction, but only to the rock. Whereas he not only smote the rock, and smote it twice, but spake to the people, and spake rashly, or idly (the Greek word βαττολογεω is thought to come from the Hebrew Bata here used), yea, bitterly, calling them rebels, and falling foul upon them with distrustful interrogations and misimplications, Et perperam locutus est. Contra charitas, ου περπερευεται, 1 Corinthians 13:4. This is called rebellion, Numbers 20:10,11; Numbers 20:24, and severely punished in God's favourite Moses.