Deuteronomy 11:4

11:4 or what he did to the army of Egypt, including their horses and chariots, when he made the waters of the Red Sea ¹  overwhelm them while they were pursuing you and he ²  annihilated them. ³ 

Deuteronomy 32:51

32:51 for both of you ⁴  rebelled against me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the desert of Zin when you did not show me proper respect ⁵  among the Israelites.

Deuteronomy 33:8

Blessing on Levi

33:8 Of Levi he said:

Your Thummim and Urim ⁶  belong to your godly one, ⁷ 

whose authority you challenged at Massah, ⁸ 

and with whom you argued at the waters of Meribah. ⁹ 

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¹ tn Heb “Reed Sea.” “Reed Sea” (or “Sea of Reeds”) is a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew expression יָם סוּף (yam suf), traditionally translated “Red Sea.” See note on the term “Red Sea” in Exod 13:18.

² tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

³ tn Heb “and the Lord destroyed them to this day” (cf. NRSV); NLT “he has kept them devastated to this very day.” The translation uses the verb “annihilated” to indicate the permanency of the action.

⁴ tn The use of the plural (“you”) in the Hebrew text suggests that Moses and Aaron are both in view here, since both had rebelled at some time or other, if not at Meribah Kadesh then elsewhere (cf. Num 20:24; 27:14).

⁵ tn Heb “did not esteem me holy.” Cf. NIV “did not uphold my holiness”; NLT “failed to demonstrate my holiness.”

⁶ sn Thummim and Urim. These terms, whose meaning is uncertain, refer to sacred stones carried in a pouch on the breastplate of the high priest and examined on occasion as a means of ascertaining God’s will or direction. See Exod 28:30; Lev 8:8; Num 27:21; 1 Sam 28:6. See also C. Van Dam, NIDOTTE 1:329-31.

⁷ tn Heb “godly man.” The reference is probably to Moses as representative of the whole tribe of Levi.

⁸ sn Massah means “testing” in Hebrew; the name is a wordplay on what took place there. Cf. Exod 17:7; Deut 6:16; 9:22; Ps 95:8-9.

⁹ sn Meribah means “contention, argument” in Hebrew; this is another wordplay on the incident that took place there. Cf. Num 20:13, 24; Ps 106:32.